Personality traits matter little compared to situational factors in producing aggression

Evidence

Other studies further underscore that it requires conducive social conditions rather than monstrous people to produce atrocious deeds. … In a laboratory experiment, Larsen and his collaborators compared the relative influence of personality traits and situational influence on aggressive behavior (Larsen et al., 1972). The set of personality traits, which included hostile disposition, Machiavellian cynical manipulation, and orientation toward the exercise of power, had little effect on aggression. In contrast, exposure to aggressive models heightened level of aggression (35%) and its intensity (23%). Conformity pressure, in which others escalated their collective aggression, produced even higher increases in level (79%) and intensity (55%) of aggression. Displacement of responsibility was the favorite mode of self-exoneration. It took two forms. In the socially explicit form, participants said they were merely doing what they had been told to do. In the more passive form, participants said they were following orders because the authorities know what they were doing. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 678

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgram’s obedience experiments and the broader situationist debate in social psychology; also parallels the Stanford Prison experiment described in the next paragraph.
• QUESTION: Worth checking whether later replications or critiques (e.g., on the role of dispositional factors in the Milgram paradigm) have complicated this strong situationist conclusion.