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Politicized Social Science and Human Natures Disagreeable Aspects: AnExample from the Anti-Catharsis Aggression Research

Vladimir J Konečni

The background and pitfalls of the original catharsis hypothesis with regard to human aggressive behavior are first presented, which is followed by an account of the research on the reformulated “cathartic effect” by V. J. Koneni and the development of his Anger-Aggression Bidirectional-Causation theoretical model (AABC). After analyzing the key findings and applications of this model, the article comments on the anti-catharsis studies by B. J. Bushman, which were carried out twenty five years later and published from the standpoint of neglect, or lack of awareness, of prior work. Such eyebrow-raising attitude to scholarship is discussed in terms of its broad socio-cultural and political backdrop – a Zeitgeist of antagonism to research that does not support a blanket “aggression breeds aggression” view and is too preoccupied with politicized quasi-sociological preferences to bother with the subtle findings and provisos of the AABC model.