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Perceiving pub violence: The symbolic influence of social and environmental factors
Author(s) -
Leather Phil,
Lawrence Claire
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1995.tb01073.x
Subject(s) - licensee , psychology , social psychology , perception , aggression , poison control , cognition , social environment , human factors and ergonomics , social perception , atmosphere (unit) , social cognition , suicide prevention , sociology , medicine , social science , physics , license , environmental health , neuroscience , political science , law , thermodynamics
Recent research on human violence emphasizes the importance of the internal, cognitive processes which influence the perceptions and evaluations involved in the classification of aggression. This study explores how specific social and environmental characteristics of public houses can influence the perception of some bars as being more ‘violence prone’ and some licensees as being more aggressive. Ninety‐six university undergraduates responded to vignettes and photographic information about an aggressive incident in a pub. The results show that judgements of the licensee and the pub atmosphere, together with estimates of incident frequency, are influenced in identifiable ways by manipulation of the physical and social ‘character’ of the setting. These results are discussed in terms of the social and physical symbolism inherent in the pub setting and the notion of person, environment and behaviour ‘fit’. Some implications of the applied importance of the results are also drawn.