FLIGHT-ELICITED ATTACK AND PRIMING OF AGGRESSION IN NONAGGRESSIVE HAMSTERS

We report a technique for inducing attack in apparently nonaggressive hamsters that rakes advantage of several behavioral effects: (a) the v igorous flight mat repeatedly defeated hamsters display in the presenc e of conspecifics, (b) the potent, attack-eliciting properties of such Right, and (c) attack priming (i.e., aggressive arousal from exposure to an initial stimulus animal carries over to exposure to a second on e). Resident hamsters that had consistently failed to attack nonfleein g intruders were found to readily attack intruders that did Ree. But r epeated exposure to the fleeing intruders alone did not induce long-te rm changes in aggressiveness. However, flight-elicited attack did succ essfully prime attack onto nonfleeing intruders presented immediately after the fleeing intruder was removed. Repealing such priming transfe r trials induced long-term changes in the formerly nonaggressive subje cts. We conclude that this is an effective procedure for inducing aggr ession that would be preferred when it is important to avoid exposing subjects to aversive stimuli. The changes in behavior that we observed seem to reflect heightened motivational levels.