ABSTRACT
Verbal aggressiveness (VA) is “a personality trait that predisposes persons to attack the self-concepts of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics of communication”. Teasing, ridicule, profanity, character attacks, and insults are forms of verbally aggressive messages that often lead to relational outcomes such as anger, embarrassment, and hurt feelings. In the original study, Infante and Wigley examined the concurrent validity of the VAS; they found it to be related to Assault and Verbal Hostility measures. VA was inversely related to cognitive complexity and social desirability. One line of research examined VA in relation to message strategies. Boster and Levine looked at VA as a predictor of compliance-gaining messages and found situationally bound effects. Perceptions of others’ VA levels figured prominently in two additional lines of research.
