Killing begets killing: evidence from a bug-killing paradigm that initial killing fuels subsequent killing.
Killing appears to perpetuate itself even in the absence of retaliation. This phenomenon may occur in part as a means to justify prior killing and so ease the threat of prior killing. In addition, this effect should arise particularly when a killer perceives similarity to the victims because similarity should exacerbate threat from killing. To examine these ideas, the authors developed a bug-killing paradigm in which they manipulated the degree of initial bug killing in a "practice task" to observe the effects on subsequent self-paced killing during a timed "extermination task." In Studies 1 and 2, for participants reporting some similarity to bugs, inducing greater initial killing led to more subsequent self-paced killing. In Study 3, after greater initial killing, more subsequent self-paced killing led to more favorable affective change. Implications for understanding lethal human violence are discussed.
Martens
Andy
A
Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. andy.martens@canterbury.ac.nz
Kosloff
Spee
S
Greenberg
Jeff
J
Landau
Mark J
MJ
Schmader
Toni
T
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D000818:Animals; D001130:Arizona; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007313:Insecta; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation; D011582:Psychological Theory; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*