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Keynote Arie Kruglanski, University of Maryland

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis Reconsidered: On the Psychology of Significance-Driven Hostility

One of the oldest scientific theories of human hostility is the frustration-aggression hypothesis, advanced in 1939. This theory has had considerable empirical support and is alive and well today. In this talk I examine major findings and concepts addressed in psychological research on hostile aggression and offer an integrative conception whereby hostility is a primordial means for establishing one's sense of significance and mattering, thus addressing a fundamental social-psychological need. Our model yields four hypotheses: (1) frustration will elicit hostile aggression proportionately to the extent that the frustrated goal served the individual's need for significance, (2) the impulse to aggress in response to significance loss will be enhanced in conditions that limit the individual's motivation/capacity to engage in extensive cognitive processing, (3) significance-reducing frustration will elicit hostile aggression unless the impulse to aggress is substituted by a non-aggressive means of significance restoration, (4) an opportunity for significance gain should increase the impulse to aggress. These hypotheses are supported by extant data as well as novel research findings in real-life contexts. They have important implications for understanding human aggression and the conditions under which it is likely to be manifested and reduced.

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