title: Understanding maladaptive responses to rejection: Aggression with an audience.
abstract: Logically, responding aggressively to rejection is maladaptive because one is unlikely to seek a relationship with an aggressor. We predict that when concealed, the illogical aggressive response to rejection is more likely, whereas when the rejected individuals' aggressive responses are perceived as public, the aggressive acts may be reduced. Participants were rejected by others (Experiment 1) or were either accepted or rejected during an online ball-tossing game (Experiment 2) and were then given an opportunity to aggress publicly or privately. Across experiments, when the opportunity to aggress was made public, rejected participants exhibited less aggressive behavior. When concerned about the perception of their public aggressive responses by others, rejected individuals' aggressive responses diminished compared with those whose actions were private. Crucially, this extended to aggression visible only to neutral others, suggesting that effects cannot solely be due to fear of retribution.
authors.affiliation: a Winston-Salem State University.
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: DeBono
authors.affiliation: b University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Rebekah L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Layton
authors.affiliation: c University at Albany, State University of New York.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: c University at Albany, State University of New York.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muraven
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aggression; impression management; social interaction