So, what was it all about?

The theory
It is thought that men and women think differently about aggression. In broad terms, men more often see it as an action that imposes control on other people. Women more often see it as an action that happens when they lose control of themselves. In this experiment we were testing to see if this is true.

What we measured
The answers that you gave may bear out the theory that the sexes view aggression differently and we think that this may be because of their personalities.

Suppose you are very good at controlling the outward expression of your anger. When people annoy you, you bottle it up and hold it in. If this is you, it takes a lot to make you finally snap and lash out at people. You have strong control over your outward behaviour and if you express it you really mean it. But those who don't control their behaviour so tightly are likely to snap when their angry feelings are at a lower level. We think that this may be where men and women differ. Women may have better control over their outward behaviour.

We measured the kind of self-control that we use in everyday social life in the questionnaire.

The bar-pressing task looked at a slightly different kind of self-control. The first task you did is called a go-no go task and it measures behavioural inhibition — how effectively you can stop an automatic behaviour. The second task is called a stop signal task and is an even harder measure of the same thing because you have to cancel a signal to your hand once it has already been sent.

The big picture
When we put it all together, the big picture is this. People with high self-control (which we predict will be women more than men) rarely act aggressively because they are so good at controlling their behaviour. But when these people snap, their level of anger will have been very high to have broken through their self-control. Because of this, they actually experience their aggression quite accurately as 'losing control'.

People with lower self-control (which we predict will be men more than women) express their anger long before it gets to the point of explosion. Because they are less emotional and angry at the time they behave aggressively, they are able to monitor their behaviour and use it to as a way to control others, rather than an irrational explosion.

And finally...
Of course, men and women are not different species! We expect a degree of variability within each sex. There are some women who think in terms of controlling others and express more aggression than most men and vice versa. We are each of us unique - that's what makes life so unpredictable and enjoyable!