title: Anger, harassment, and cardiovascular reactivity among Chinese and Indian men in Singapore.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This experiment examined psychological and cardiovascular responses to experimental harassment among Chinese and Indian men in Singapore who differed in levels of dispositional anger.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-four Chinese and Indian men participated in a laboratory experiment on cardiovascular reactivity in which mood was rated and heart rate and blood pressure were measured during computer tasks in which they were either harassed or allowed to complete the tasks without interruption.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comparison of systolic reactivity to harassment and nonharassment indicated, as expected, that reactivity was greater after harassment. Furthermore, a significant race by dispositional anger by harassment effect was obtained for systolic reactivity that indicated different patterns of reactivity for Chinese and Indian participants. In the absence of harassment, Chinese participants showed low systolic reactivity regardless of their level of dispositional anger, whereas systolic reactivity increased as a function of dispositional anger when they were harassed. For Indians, however, systolic reactivity was a positive function of dispositional anger both when they were harassed and not harassed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest stronger cardiovascular reactivity to stress among Indian than among Chinese men. This seems to be particularly true for Indians high in dispositional anger.
authors.affiliation: National University of Singapore, Singapore. swkgb@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D012846:Singapore; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires