Trait Acceptance Buffers Aggressive Tendency by the Regulation of Anger during Social Exclusion

Abstract

Social exclusion has led to increased negative emotions and aggressive behaviors, two outcomes that are correlated with each other. Thus, the down-regulation of negative emotions appears to play a crucial role in reducing the tendency for aggressive behavior. However, this assumption has not yet been tested. To this end, a total of 397 undergraduates reported their aggressive tendencies, state emotions and trait acceptance by completing corresponding questionnaires, and a recall paradigm was used to induce experiences of social exclusion. The results showed that in the context of social exclusion, (1) trait acceptance was negatively correlated with negative emotions and aggressive tendency but was positively correlated with positive emotions; (2) negative emotions, rather than positive emotions, were positively correlated with aggressive tendency; (3) increased trait acceptance buffered the experience of anger, which is, in turn, related to reduced aggressive tendency; (4) trait acceptance also downregulated the feeling of sadness, which is, however, related to increased aggression; (5) the mediator of sadness was smaller in effect size than that of anger. Taken together, these results suggest that negative emotions are associated with aggression in the context of social exclusion, and the habitual use of an acceptance strategy was conductive to decreasing aggressive tendencies by decreasing anger.