PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Shannon Marie Hassett

MA-Research
August 2001

The Mitigating Effects of Smiling on Anger and Aggression

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential mitigating effects of smiling on anger and aggression.  Because exposure to smiling, like exposure to humor, may create an affective state which is incompatible with anger and thus inhibit aggression, it was hypothesized that, when provoked, someone who is exposed to a smile by the source of the provocation will be less likely to show anger and aggression than someone who is provoked but receives no smile.  To test this hypothesis, forty females and twenty males were assigned to either a Provocation or No Provocation condition and then either exposed to smiling or no smiling by a female experimenter.  Aggression was defined in terms of the unfavorability of participant evaluation of the female experimenter’s performance as an applicant for a paid research assistantship.  The results showed support for the hypothesis, but only for the male participants

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