Affective prediction errors in persistence and escalation of aggression.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Decision-Making
• Affective Science

Background:

• Harm aversion is a general human tendency, yet intergroup aggression is prevalent.
• Existing learning models focus on outcome prediction errors, but affective prediction errors (PEs) may also drive aggression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if affective prediction errors (PEs) contribute to overcoming harm aversion in aggression.
• To examine how empathy and group identification modulate the influence of affective PEs on intergroup aggression.

Main Methods:

• Five preregistered online experiments (N = 4,607) were conducted.
• Outcome prediction errors were held constant while participants chose aggressive or nonaggressive actions.
• Affective PEs and empathy induction were manipulated to observe effects on aggression.

Main Results:

• Participants aggressed more against disliked group members, often escalating actions that yielded positive affective PEs.
• Induced empathy toward the target group reduced the escalation of aggression based on positive affective PEs, especially towards liked groups.
• Affective PEs did not consistently add explanatory power beyond post-outcome affect alone.

Conclusions:

• Affective prediction error integration is a potential mechanism explaining how harm aversion is overcome in intergroup conflict.
• The findings underscore the importance of examining separable components of affective signals in predicting behavior.
• This research highlights the necessity of appropriate testing for affective science and decision-making research.