The voodoo doll task: Introducing and validating a novel method for studying aggressive inclinations

• Published in: Aggressive behavior 2013-11, Vol.39 (6), p.419-439
• Main Authors: DeWall, C. Nathan, Finkel, Eli J., Lambert, Nathaniel M., Slotter, Erica B., Bodenhausen, Galen V., Pond Jr, Richard S., Renzetti, Claire M., Fincham, Frank D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: aggression; Aggression - psychology; Female; Humans; intimate partner violence; magical beliefs; Male; Reproducibility of Results; Sex Factors; violence; Violence - psychology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0096-140X; 1098-2337
• DOI: 10.1002/ab.21496

Aggression pervades modern life. To understand the root causes of aggression, researchers have developed several methods to assess aggressive inclinations. The current article introduces a new behavioral method—the voodoo doll task (VDT)—that offers a reliable and valid trait and state measure of aggressive inclinations across settings and relationship contexts. Drawing on theory and research on the law of similarity and magical beliefs (Rozin, Millman, & Nemeroff [1986], Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 703−712), we propose that people transfer characteristics of a person onto a voodoo doll representing that person. As a result, causing harm to a voodoo doll by stabbing it with pins may have important psychological similarities to causing actual harm to the person the voodoo doll represents. Nine methodologically diverse studies (total N = 1,376) showed that the VDT had strong reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity. Discussion centers on the importance of magical beliefs in understanding the causes of aggressive inclinations. Aggr. Behav. 39:419–439, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.