What is aggressive? some contextual factors in judging international behavior

This research delineates several factors that may affect how likely observers are to judge some international actions as aggressive. Subjects rated scenarios in which a country intercedes in the affairs of another country experiencing internal or external difficulties. Judged to be more aggressive, as hypothesized, were actions in which it was “they” rather than “we” who were responsible, actions capable of causing injury or death, and actions carried out for a country's own self‐interest. There were also unpredicted subtleties of judging international behavior. The results are considered from the perspective of recent contextualist theorizing.