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Presents a study that determined the biographical, social, cognitive and individual differences among male ice hockey fans using the participants' self-reported likelihood of joining in a crowd disturbance as a dependent measure. Methodology used in the study; Manifestations of individual differences among subjects; Relationship between public self-consciousness and subject's likelihood of joining disturbances.

The present investigation sought to establish the relationships between two measures of aggression and both subjects' self-reported attraction to fights and likelihood that they would join in a crowd disturbance. Subjects were adult males (N = 63) interviewed at an ice hockey game. Tests of the false consensus effect [Ross et el. (1977): Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 13:279–301] were also undertaken. Physical aggression and anger bore strong, positive correlations with subjects' liking to watch the fights and the likelihood of their escalating a crowd disturbance. Support for the false consensus effect was found insofar as those attracted to the fights and those who would escalate a disturbance estimated a disproportionately greater number of other spectators were similarly attracted to fights and would lake similar action. The Implications for unruly crowd behaviors were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A principal components analysis of the intercorrelation matrix of minutes assessed for 19 aggressive penalties awarded in all games played in the 1983-84 season (N = 505) of the Western Hockey League is reported as an attempted replication of a similar analysis for the 1978-79 season reported by Russell & Russell (1984). Beyond superficial similarities between the two solutions, only the component of fighting was found to be in common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects on males (N = 60) of observing fictional aggression were assessed in a between-subjects design. Subjects were randomly assigned to view either a film clip of professional lady wrestlers, a mud wrestling segment or, to a no-film control condition. Both films produced negative changes in mood states, principally an increase in aggression and a decrease in social affection. Exposure to the films failed to produce changes in men's acceptance of interpersonal violence against women, rape myth beliefs or sexual callousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation provided for tests of a lunar-aggression hypothesis using the aggressive penalties awarded in ice hockey over a season of competition. Interpersonal aggression was found to be unrelated to either the synodic or anomalistic cycles, a result consistent with recent reviews of lunar research. Discussion centered on the persistence of lunar beliefs and their links to the literature on selective exposure and interpersonal expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines the influence of experimental confederates' censure or support of media violence on subjects' aggression. Exceptional features of the experimental design; Underlying, bi-directional pattern of influence; Difficulty in discerning the result of modelled support or condemnation of violence in a small group viewing situation.

The effects on spectator hostility of viewing aggressive athletic contests were investigated using three diverse measures of hostility in a replication of the widely cited Goldstein and Arms (1971) Army-Navy football study. Male and female subjects were exposed to either stylized aggression (professional wrestling), realistic aggression (ice hockey), or a competitive but nonaggressive control event (swimming) in a before-after design. While the three measures of hostility yielded somewhat different results for the three events, general support was found for the earlier finding of increased spectator hostility as a result of observing aggression. Whereas hostility was shown to increase at wrestling and hockey, such increases did not occur at the swimming competition. Other aspects of mood change among spectators were also investigated. There was a blunting of the quality of interpersonal relations at the three events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates aggression in relation to crowd size and competition using a season's records of a Canadian ice hockey league. Researchers investigated a competitive situation in which the presence of a persuasive trio of onlookers, urging that intense levels of shock be delivered to a nonaggressive opponent, elicited more aggression than when the subjects competed without an audience. The effects of this social pressure to aggress persisted even when the audience was subsequently withdrawn. Spectators at sporting events are well aware that the excitement or tempo of athletic contests does not assume a constant level throughout. At times play is interminably slow and uninteresting; at other times the pace quickens, often reaching a fever pitch. While the tempo of play might ideally be operationalized in terms of the level of crowd noise, an alternative measure of "arousal" might be represented by the total number of shots on goal during a game. In a recent cross-national field study of aggression support was found for the proposition that arousal is a necessary but not sufficient condition for aggression. In assessing the relationship between crowd size and player aggression, use was made of both the 1970-71 and 1971-72 season records. It is opined that the rather cursory examination of game tempo in relation to aggression did not result in significant correlations. However, it would be premature to draw any conclusion at this point on the basis of a single, somewhat spurious, measure which may well be confounded with game score.

The sport of hockey served as a setting for the investigation of the relationships between both Machiavellianism and I-E locus of control and three behavioural indices of aggression. Physical aggression, challenge to authority, and total aggression were positively related to Mach V scores and I-E locus of control, the only exception being I-E and physical aggression. Goal scoring, as a performance measure, was positively related to challenge to authority and total aggression while assists were highly correlated with all measures of aggression and I-E locus of control. Measures of precautionary behaviour were generally unrelated to the scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]