Correlation between trait hostility and faster reading times for sentences describing angry reactions to ambiguous situations

Abstract

The hypothesis that trait anger is associated with an increased tendency to interpret ambiguous situations as anger‐provoking was investigated in a reading time study. A total of 48 healthy volunteers read a series of short narrative passages and were asked to adopt the perspective of the main character, identified at the start of each passage. Reading times for key sentences, which described the main characters' angry or nonangry reactions to ambiguous anger‐provoking situations, were recorded. Trait anger and impulsivity were negatively correlated with reading time for sentences describing both types of reaction, but anger was also correlated with relatively faster processing of sentences describing angry reactions. This study suggests that those with angrier dispositions are more likely to anticipate angry reactions from others.

Notes

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Alyson Bond, National Addiction Centre, PO Box 48, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF; e‐mail: [email protected]

In case the results were influenced by set, partial correlations, controlling for set number, were also computed. Although individual correlations changed slightly, the pattern of correlations and their significance did not change.