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Taking Offense: Effects of Personality and Teasing History on Behavioral and Emotional Reactions to Teasing
Author(s) -
Bollmer Julie M.,
Harris Monica J.,
Milich Richard,
Georgesen John C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6494.7104003
Subject(s) - psychology , personality , negativity effect , task (project management) , developmental psychology , big five personality traits , social psychology , management , economics
This study investigated how global personality traits and teasing history are related to participants' emotional and behavioral reactions to an actual teasing event. College undergraduates ( N =108) worked on a task with a same‐sex confederate. While interacting, the confederate either teased participants about how slowly they were working on the task or made a benign comment about the nature of the task. Analyses revealed that even mild teasing can generate negativity towards the teaser and interaction. More interestingly, however, personality moderated reactions to teasing, as teasing condition interacted with each of the Big Five personality domains in theoretically meaningful ways. Childhood teasing history also moderated reactions to teasing, as frequent victims and frequent teasers responded in different ways.