ATTITUDES AND SOCIAL COGNITION Inferences About the Morality of an Aggressor: The Role of Perceived Motive

The research investigated perceivers ’ inferences about the morality of target persons who engaged in aggressive behavior. Across several experiments, inferences about the morality of an aggressor were based more on the perceived motives of the target than on the presence of facilitating situational forces. For example, when a target’s aggression was facilitated by personal rewards for aggression (instrumental aggression), perceivers inferred more negative motives and attributed lower morality to the target than when the target’s aggression was facilitated by situational provocation (reactive aggression). The results suggest that perceived motives play an important role in dispositional inference and pose a problem for models that focus primarily on perceived causality, assumptions about base rates (consensus), or diagnosticity. Although most people disapprove of aggression, judgments about the morality of aggression may be highly context dependent. Imagine a crowded bar room in which Jenkins and Jane are deep in conversation. A loud, inebriated bully makes a disparaging remark about Jane. Jenkins gets up and pushes the bully out of his chair. Now imagine a different scenario. Melvin and his pal