Retaliation to personalistic attack

Jones and Davis's [1965. Advances in experimental social psychology. Academ ic Press] notion of "personalism" was experimentally tested in a situation in which behavior had negative hedonic relevance for the recipient. It was hypothesized that (1) if a person is attacked by another person, this victi m will react more negatively than when no attack occurs and that (2) a vict im who is singled out for attack will react more negatively compared with v ictims of an undistinctive attack (i.e., when the actor behaves similarly t oward the victim and a third person). A 2 x 2 design was employed with "Vic tim of attack" as the first factor (no attack vs, attack) and "Behaviour to ward a third person" as the second factor (no attack vs. attack). The main dependent variable was the number of attacks by the victim toward the attac ker (retaliation). Thirty-two students took part in the experiment. Victims of attack retaliated more against the attacker than those who suffered fro m no attack. Victims of a personalistic attack retaliated more than victims of an undistinctive attack. The results, confirming both hypotheses, suppo rt an attributional view on harm-doing and contradict the notion of retalia tion as pure behavioral reciprocity. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.