Presented at the 34th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, GA. June, 2011

1. ALCOHOL INTOXICATION AND AGGRESSION AGAINST WOMEN: THE MODERATING ROLE OF MALE ROLE NORMS Robert D. Odom, Oksana Rzajeva, & Dominic J. Parrott Department of Psychology Georgia State University Atlanta, GA 30303 Behavioral Science Laboratory Discussion The present study was the first to examine the interactive effects of acute alcohol intoxication and male gender norms on aggression toward women. Results indicated that alcohol facilitated aggression toward women to a greater extent among men who strongly endorsed the status norm relative to men who did not report strong endorsement of this norm. A similar pattern of results involving endorsement of the toughness norm approached significance. These effects were limited to conditions in which men were minimally provoked by the female confederate. These data suggest that men who endorse the status norm (and possibly the toughness norm) and experience minimal provocation from a woman may perceive a significant threat to their masculine identity. Among such men, alcohol focuses their attention onto this challenge and thus facilitates a demonstration of masculinity via physical aggression. Interestingly, these data suggest that – at least in the present study – female provocation activated some men’s need to demonstrate status and toughness, but not their need to demonstrate antifemininity. While future research is clearly needed to explore this finding, the present study does illustrate the importance of assessing the endorsement of male gender norms as a multifaceted, rather than a unidimensional, construct. The lack of significant findings in the high provocation condition is consistent with this interpretation. Under such conditions, even men who minimally endorse traditional gender norms were likely focused on threatening cues. Thus, endorsement of traditional norms no longer conferred an increased activation of perceived threat following high provocation; consequently, alcohol intoxication did not facilitate higher levels of aggression toward women among norm endorsing relative to non-norm endorsing men. To confirm this explanation, future research is needed that incorporates a no-provocation control condition or directly assesses men’s perception of (and attention to) masculinity threat. These procedures will help to establish whether provocation, and more specifically attention to a salient masculinity threat – accounts for alcohol-related aggression against women in men who endorse specific gender norms. In addition to replicating these findings, it will be important to determine whether endorsement of these norms similarly exacerbates other forms of intoxicated aggression (e.g., verbal, sexual, etc.). Despite these limitations, these findings point to the importance of masculinity in the facilitation of alcohol-related aggression toward women. Background and Significance Violence directly affects 4.8 million women in the United States each year (NCIPC, 2011). Although many factors contribute to the occurrence of violence against women, alcohol is cited as a major contributing cause (Leonard, 2005). However, not all people become aggressive while intoxicated. This observation has been explained by extant studies which demonstrate that myriad biological, psychological, interpersonal, and contextual variables moderate this relationship (Chermack & Giancola, 1997). One consistent finding is that alcohol facilitates aggression in those who are predisposed to aggressive behavior (Collins, Schlenger, & Jordan, 1988; Pernanen, 1991). Among the variety of individual difference variables shown to facilitate aggression toward women, men’s endorsement of traditional gender role beliefs may be particularly relevant to the alcohol-aggression link. Men who subscribe to traditional male role norms believe that they must distinguish themselves (e.g., higher in status, tougher, less feminine) from women in order to be masculine. Therefore, when placed in a situation in which women are perceived to threaten their masculine identity, they are more likely than men who do not strongly endorse male role norms to demonstrate their masculinity by way of aggression against women. Research supports this view. In experimental settings, hypermasculine men tend to display more aggression toward women (Parrott & Zeichner, 2003), particularly if that woman is perceived to violate feminine norms (Reidy et al., 2009). However, the interactive effect of male role norms and alcohol on aggression toward women has yet to be examined in an experimental study. Hypotheses may be informed by alcohol myopia theory (AMT), which posits that alcohol narrows attention to only the most salient and provocative cues in the environment. Thus, because men who endorse traditional male gender norms will experience a stronger threat to their masculine identity when provoked by a woman, AMT stipulates that alcohol will focus their attention onto these threats and result in the relatively higher levels of aggression than intoxicated men who do not endorse traditional norms. No such differences are expected among sober men, as they will be better able to attend to multiple cues in the environment, thereby reducing aggression risk. Importantly, male role norms are multifaceted and may moderate the alcohol-aggression link differently. Thus, the present study examines the endorsement of three facets of male role norms (i.e., status, toughness, and antifemininity) as moderators in the relationship between alcohol intoxication and aggression against women. Results Hierarchical linear regressions were performed separately for each norm within each provocation condition. For each model, main effects of beverage and the given norm were entered in Step 1 and the Beverage X Norm interaction was entered in Step 2 (see Table 1). In the low provocation condition, a main effect was evidenced for status, such that stronger endorsement of the status norm was associated with higher levels of aggression toward the female opponent. A Beverage X Status interaction was also detected (see Figure 1). Explication of this interaction revealed that alcohol facilitated significantly higher levels of aggression toward the female opponent among high status participants ( β = .40, p = .065) than among the low status participants ( β = -.38, p = .141). No other significant interactions were detected under conditions of low or high provocation, although the Beverage X Toughness interaction in the low provocation condition approached significance. Acknowledgments This research was supported by grant R01-AA-015445 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism awarded to Dominic J. Parrott. Presented at the 34 th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, GA. June, 2011 Method Participants were 41 heterosexual male drinkers recruited from Atlanta, GA (Age: M = 23.9, SD = 2.3; Years of Education: M = 14.8, SD = 2.7) and comprised of 37% Caucasians, 43% African Americans, 5% Asian-American, and 15% who identified with more than one race. After providing informed consent, participants were administered a battery of questionnaires that included the Male Role Norms Scale (MRNS; Thompson & Pleck, 1986). The MRNS is a 26-item inventory that assesses three dimensions of masculine ideology: status (e.g., “A man must stand on his own two feet and never depend on other people to help him do things”), toughness (e.g., “A good motto for a man would be ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’”), and antifemininity (e.g., “It bothers me when a man does something that I consider ‘feminine’”). Participants were asked to rate each item on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), with higher scores corresponding to stronger endorsement of traditional status, toughness, and antifemininity norms. Next, they were randomly assigned to consume an alcoholic or non-alcoholic control beverage and then completed a modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; Taylor, 1967). The TAP was presented as a purported reaction time competition in which mild electric shocks were received from (i.e., after a loss), and administered to (i.e., after a win), a fictitious female opponent. The entire competition consisted of two successive blocks of 16 trials which were separated by two transition trials. During the first and second block, participants received low (low provocation condition) and high (high provocation condition) intensity shocks, respectively. Participants received two moderate intensity shocks during the two transition trials. Aggression was defined by the intensity of the shocks administered by the participant from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Table 1. Summary of Regression Analyses Testing the Effects of Alcohol Intoxication and Male Role Norms on Physical Aggression against Women in Low Provocation Condition Figure 1 . Effect of status endorsement on the relation between alcohol intoxication and shock intensity toward a female confederate. Shock Intensity Variable b β t p Status Model Step 1 Beverage 0.38 0.07 0.47 ns Status 0.87 0.35 2.25 < .05 Step 2 Beverage X Status 2.02 0.37 2.19 < .05 Toughness Model Step 1 Beverage 1.15 0.22 1.41 ns Toughness 0.56 0.22 1.46 ns Step 2 Beverage X Toughness 2.02 0.29 1.83 ns Antifemininity Model Step 1 Beverage 1.02 0.19 1.21 ns Antifemininity 0.42 0.17 1.07 ns Step 2 Beverage X Antifemininity -0.14 -0.03 -0.16 ns The Present Study Alcohol Violence Against Women