Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2025
09:12
The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress
Published on: July 4, 2013
70.9K
The association between social class and aggression: A meta-analytic review
Bing Chen1, Chao Zhang2, Fan Feng2
1Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Social Science & Medicine (1982)
|December 1, 2023
Summary
Social class has a small negative association with aggression. Factors like study type, age, and how social class and aggression are measured influence this relationship, which is not fixed.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Sociology
- Criminology
Background:
- Social class is linked to aggression, but findings are inconsistent.
- Lower social class is often a risk factor for aggression, yet associations vary.
- Previous research shows inverse, positive, or null relationships between social class and aggression.
Approach:
- A meta-analysis of 268 studies with 546 effect sizes from 357 independent samples.
- Employed a random-effects meta-analytic model to assess the overall relationship.
- Conducted moderator analyses to explore heterogeneity in the social class-aggression link.
Key Points:
- A small but significant negative relationship exists between social class and aggression (r = -0.092).
- Heterogeneity was explained by study-level, sample-level, class-level, and aggression-level characteristics.
- Robust effects were observed with minimal evidence of publication bias.
Conclusions:
- The social class-aggression relationship is context-dependent and not inherent to social groups.
- Lower-class individuals may display aggression as an adaptation to disadvantaged environments.
- Findings inform future research and strategies to reduce aggression in lower-class populations.
Related Concept Videos
01:47Aggression
27.8K
Humans engage in aggression when they seek to cause harm or pain to another person. Aggression takes two forms depending on one’s motives: hostile or instrumental. Hostile aggression is motivated by feelings of anger with intent to cause pain; a fight in a bar with a stranger is an example of hostile aggression. In contrast, instrumental aggression is motivated by achieving a goal and does not necessarily involve intent to cause pain (Berkowitz, 1993); a contract killer who murders for...
27.8K
01:21Secondary Motives: Affiliation Motivation and Aggression Motivation
338
Affiliation motivation is the intrinsic desire to connect with others and belong to a social group, which plays a crucial role in forming and maintaining personal relationships. This type of motivation is essential for psychological well-being, as it provides individuals with a sense of community and support. An example of this is a student who joins a study group in order to feel a sense of connection. People with high affiliation motivation actively seek social approval, take satisfaction in...
338
02:04Bullying
8.4K
A modern form of aggression is bullying. As you learn in your study of child development, socializing and playing with other children is beneficial for children’s psychological development. However, as you may have experienced as a child, not all play behavior has positive outcomes. Some children are aggressive and want to play roughly. Other children are selfish and do not want to share toys. One form of negative social interactions among children that has become a national concern is...
8.4K
02:12Relationship Formation
40.0K
What do you think is the single most influential factor in determining with whom you become friends and whom you form romantic relationships? You might be surprised to learn that the answer is simple: the people with whom you have the most contact. This most important factor is proximity. You are more likely to be friends with people you have regular contact with. For example, there are decades of research that shows that you are more likely to become friends with people who live in your dorm,...
40.0K
01:04Social Facilitation
32.0K
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
32.0K
02:16Stereotype Content Model
14.7K
The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) was first proposed by Susan Fiske and her colleagues (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick & Xu, 2002; see also Fiske, 2012 and Fiske, 2017). The SCM specifies that when someone encounters a new group, they will stereotype them based on two metrics: warmth—or that group’s perceived intent, and how likely they are to provide help or inflict harm—and competence—or their ability to carry out that objective. Depending on the warmth-competence...
14.7K