ESCALATION AS A REACTION TO PERSISTENT ANNOYANCE

In two experiments on reactions to persistent annoyance from another p erson, participants employed a very orderly verbal escalation sequence that fit a cascading Guttman scale. This began with requests and move d on to demands, and then to complaints, angry statements, threats, ha rassment, and abuse, in that order. The more escalated the tactic, the fewer people used it people seldom skipped a step on the way to their most escalated tactic. Two possible explanations for this pattern see med plausible in light of the data, that it is due to either a widely shared try-try-again script or a declining hierarchy of thresholds. Ve rbal escalation was associated with a negative view of the annoyer's c haracter, while physical escalation was associated with blame and feel ings of frustration and anger. Escalation was discouraged by membershi p in the same group as the annoyer. Loud noise did not encourage escal ation in general but promoted the use of angry statements.