Why are bystanders friendly to recipients of aggression?

Abstract

The escalation of conflicts of interest into aggressive conflict can be costly in terms of increased post-conflict stress and damage to the opponents’ relationship. Some costs may be mitigated through post-conflict interactions. One such type of interaction is affiliative contact from a bystander to the recipient of aggression. This type of interaction has been suggested to have a number of functions, including stress reduction and opponent relationship repair. It may also protect bystanders from redirected aggression from the original recipient of aggression. Here we review the evidence for such functions and propose a framework within which the function and occurrence of post-conflict affiliation directed from a bystander to the recipient of aggression is related to the quality of the relationships between the individuals involved and the patterns of behavior expressed.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for their useful comments on this manuscript.

Figures and Tables

Table 1 Species in which post-conflict affiliation directed from a bystander to the recipient of aggression has been demonstrated and the suggested function of such interactions