Children easily copy the aggression of adults.
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Twenty-four preschoolers were identified in each of the three conditions. One experimental group observed aggressive behavior patterns of adults, the other observed restrained non-aggressive models, and subjects from the control group did not observe behavior patterns at all. Half of the subjects from the experimental conditions observed the behavior of models of the same sex with them, and half of the opposite sex. Then the behavior of the subjects was tested for the occurrence of imitative and non-imitative reactions in new conditions in the absence of a model.
A comparison of the behavior of subjects in a generalized situation showed that subjects who were presented with an aggressive model showed a large number of aggressive reactions corresponding to the behavior of the model, and their average scores differed significantly from the scores of subjects from the non-aggressive and control groups. Subjects from aggressive settings also showed significantly more partially imitative reactions and non-imitative aggression and were generally less restrained in their behavior than subjects from non-aggressive settings.
It was found that the gender of the model affected the simulation in different ways. Boys showed more aggression compared to girls, imitating the behavior of the male model, these differences were manifested in masculine behavior.
Subjects who observed a non-aggressive model, especially a depressed male model, were generally less aggressive than those in the control group.
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