Aggression’s Longitudinal Links with Forecasted (and Felt) Aggressive Pleasure

Transient experiences of positive affect surrounding aggressive acts promote subsequent aggression. Yet, a longitudinal test of this effect is lacking. In a three-wave longitudinal study, 469 diverse undergraduates at a Minority Serving Institution repeatedly forecasted how pleasant they expected aggression to feel, perpetrated an aggressive act, and then reported how pleasant it felt. Longitudinal growth in both forecasted and felt aggressive pleasure over time was positively correlated with corresponding growth in aggressive behavior. Further, the better that aggression felt on one wave, the more aggressive participants were on the next. Suggesting that these effects contribute to broader patterns of aggressive tendencies, dispositionally-aggressive participants forecasted and felt more aggressive pleasure over time. Forecasts of aggressive pleasure were broadly inaccurate, though this inaccuracy had uncertain implications for aggression. These results highlight the complex ways that forecasted and felt positive affect reinforce aggression over time.