Summary Of The Bumping Incident

In all three experiment’s participants were insulted by a confederate who bumped them and called them an asshole. In experiment 1, two observers were present in which both could hear everything that was going on, as well as was able to glance at the participants face throughout the experiment. The observers rated the participant emotional reaction on a 7-point scale after the bumping incident. The reactions of anger and amusement were the ones of greatest interest; observers also rated how aroused, flustered, resigned, or wary participants seemed. After the participants returned to the room, the judgment tasks began. The first task was a word completion to assess hostility; the participants were given a string of letters that he could
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