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Mousekilling, intermale fighting, and conditioned emotional response in rats
Author(s) -
Bowers Donald C.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/1098-2337(1979)5:1<41::aid-ab2480050106>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - aggression , agonistic behaviour , psychology , arousal , situational ethics , juvenile , developmental psychology , stimulus (psychology) , neuroscience , social psychology , biology , genetics , cognitive psychology
Several possible relationships between two forms of aggression in rats were studied. First, mouse killing and spontaneous intermale fighting were found to be correlated. Rats which attacked other rats were those most likely to kill mice. To determine whether aggressive and nonaggressive rats were also differentially responsive to other situations involving emotional arousal, but not aggression, mouse‐killers and nonkillers were compared in a conditioned emotional response (CER) situation. Mouse‐killers showed greater suppression to the conditioned stimulus (CS) and to the situational cues of the apparatus. Therefore, a common arousal mechanism may underlie a number of diverse agonistic responses. Nevertheless, extensive mouse‐killing experience did not increase the tendency of rats to fight with either adult males or juvenile males.