Keeping one's cool: trait anger, hostile thoughts, and the recruitment of limited capacity control.
A regulatory perspective on trait anger suggests that low-trait-anger individuals may recruit limited-capacity cognitive control resources following the activation of hostile thoughts. Because no prior studies directly examine such processes, the present studies seek to do so. Study 1 reveals that a simple word-evaluation paradigm can be used to examine individual differences in hostile reactivity, in that high-trait-anger individuals display more pronounced tendencies to evaluate words negatively following a hostile prime. Studies 2-4 examine a cognitive control account of such findings. Study 2 finds that time-limiting evaluations eliminate trait-linked differences in evaluative priming. Studies 3 and 4 find that low-trait-anger individuals display deficits on a secondary task immediately following the activation of a hostile thought. All studies, then, converge on the link between low trait anger and the spontaneous recruitment of limited-capacity cognitive control resources following hostile primes.
Wilkowski
Benjamin M
BM
Psychology Department, North Dakota State University, ND 58105, USA. Benjamin.Wilkowski@ndsu.edu
Robinson
Michael D
MD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000786:Anger; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D014481:United States