SOCIAL COGNITION IN CYNICAL HOSTILITY

Cynical hostility, as measured by the Cook and Medley Hostility (Ho) scale, has been found to predict illness and premature death. A variety of models of the potential links between hostility and health have suggested that cynically hostile people have a unique cognitive style in social contexts. To avoid the methodological limitations of previous self-report methods for assessing the cognitive correlates of cynical hostility, the present study employed an information-processing procedure. High- and low-Ho males engaged in either a neutral or hostile social interaction with a confederate, and then rated him on a series of trait adjectives. In a subsequent incidental recall task, cynically hostile individuals showed enhanced recall of hostile trait adjectives following the hostile social interaction. Consistent with theory, these results suggest a "hostile other" schema, which can be activated by antagonistic interactions. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.