Recalling unpresented hostile words: False memories predictors of traditional and cyberbullying

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between hostile false memories (violent and verbal/aggressive) and engagement in traditional and cyberbullying, controlling for their co-occurrence. Two hundred eleven adolescents completed measures of traditional and cyberbullying and performed a modified version of the “DRM paradigm”, a false memory task for lists of associated words. Five lists were used: one of ambiguously violent words, oneof insults and three lists of neutral words used as controls. For each list a free recall task was performed. A path analysis showed that both violent false memories for ambiguously hostile words and verbal/aggressive false memories for insults were positively associated with cyberbullying and, in males, also with traditional bullying. These data indicate a contribution of hostile memory distortions to bullying behaviours in adolescents. Findings are discussed according to the general aggression model.

Keywords:

• False memories
• Bullying
• Cyberbullying
• Aggression

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Alessandro Vittori, Andrea Beretta and Benedetta Palladino for their help with data collection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manila Vannucci

The current research was co-funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2007).