Response to high argumentatives: Message and sex differences

Abstract

Research is reviewed which suggests it is important to understand better what it means to the individual to be highly argumentative. A study is reported which investigated communicative responses to the highly argumentative person. Male and female subjects considered a persuasion situation where the adversary was either a male or female who used either argument or verbal aggression. The results revealed that the adversary's use of verbal aggression provoked male subjects to be more verbally aggressive, but stimulated female subjects to be more argumentative. The sex of the adversary did not influence the preference for argumentative or verbally aggressive message strategies. Implications of the results are discussed, especially in terms of reducing verbal aggression.