Verbal Aggression and Prefrontal Cortex Asymmetry

In their seminal article, Infante and Wigley (1986) offered a conceptualization of verbal aggression that has remained relatively unchanged for nearly two and a half decades. They characterized verbal aggression as “an attack on the self-concept of an individual instead of, or in addition to, the topic of communication.” The most salient characteristic of verbally aggressive messages is that the attack is designed to inflict psychological pain. This feature clearly distinguishes verbally aggressive messages from other types of communication intended to influence the behavior of others. Indeed, while verbally aggressive messages can sometimes alter another person’s behavior in ways consistent with the goals of a source, the relational costs can be significant. Furthermore, messages designed to influence others always have implicit or explicit goals, whereas verbally aggressive messages may or may not have any other purpose than to cause the receiver to experience psychological pain.