Ambition‐driven aggression in response to significance‐threatening frustration

Abstract

Conceptualizing aggression as elicited by the significance‐reducing effects of frustration, and ambition as reflecting the quest for significance, we tested the role of ambition in the frustration–aggression relationship. Study 1 (N = 249) found that ambitious individuals are more sensitive to significance‐threatening frustration. Study 2 (N = 413) found that significance‐reducing (vs. non‐reducing) frustration leads to more aggressiveness through significance loss and that ambitious individuals react to significance‐reducing frustration more aggressively. Study 3 (N = 248) replicated this relation and demonstrated that the aggressiveness of ambitious individuals in reaction to significance‐reducing frustration is not related to their trait aggression. Study 4 (N = 196) showed that it is also unrelated to their trait‐level frustration, and Study 5 (N = 172) replicated the relation between ambition and aggression consequent significance‐reducing frustration with a different methodology. This research supports the notion that an aggressive response to frustration pertains to the significance‐reducing nature of the frustration, and that ambition is a moderator of this relation.