MURDER MOST FOUL - PREDICTORS OF AN AFFIRMATIVE RESPONSE TO AN OUTRAGEOUS QUESTION

Male and female students (N = 761) attending university in Canada and the U.S. were asked if they would personally kill someone they knew an d thoroughly hated under conditions of anonymity, Among Canadian subje cts, males, those who were not religious, foreign students and those s coring high on irritation or assaultive tendencies mere most likely to endorse the ''murder'' item. Among U.S. subjects, only irritability w as a significant predictor of the criterion item. The results were dis cussed in terms of their methodological implications. (C) 1996 Wiley-L iss, Inc.