Sex differences in beliefs about aggression: opponent's sex and the form of aggression

Previous studies show that men endorse instrumental beliefs about aggression to a greater extent than women, whereas women endorse expressive beliefs to a greater extent than men. However, men and women indicate that they have different opponents in mind when thinking about aggression, and existing measures may emphasize physical forms of aggression. Therefore, beliefs about aggression were examined when the type of aggression (physical or verbal) and the sex of the opponent (same sex or opposite-sex partner) were specified, among a sample of 200 students. Expressive beliefs were higher and instrumental beliefs lower for an opposite-sex partner and for physical aggression. The characteristic sex difference applied across all manipulations for expressive beliefs, but not for instrumental ones: men showed higher scores than women only for same-sex physical aggression. Higher instrumental (but not lower expressive) scores were also found among those who based their responses on real rather than hypothetical events. The sex difference in instrumental beliefs for same-sex physical aggression was largely confined to respondents using a hypothetical event. As in previous studies, instrumental and expressive beliefs were relatively independent of one another. The position that the beliefs represent rhetorical devices is assessed in the light of these findings.