How relative deprivation increases aggressive behavior: Exploring the moderating roles of resource scarcity, deprivation intensity, and sanctions in a game task.

The present work investigated the influence of experimentally manipulated relative deprivation (RD) on aggressive behavior in a game context. Participants experienced personal RD as the difference between own rewards and the rewards of a fictitious other player. Going beyond previous research, three yet-unexplored moderators of the RD-aggression link were experimentally tested: In Experiment 1 (N = 157), we tested the effect of the scarcity of resources one is deprived of, and the intensity of the RD experience in terms of the magnitude of the disadvantaged comparison. In Experiment 2 (N = 195), we investigated whether aggressive behavior is influenced by imposing possible or actual sanctions (i.e., costs) for aggression. The results show effects on aggressive behavior toward the other player that were mediated by the personal perception of RD and that only actual but not possible costs eliminated this indirect effect. Implications for the aggression-related behavioral consequences of RD are discussed.