External Validity of "Trivial" Experiments: The Case of Laboratory Aggression

The external validi ty o f artificial " t r iv ia l" laboratory set t ings is examined . Past v iews e m p h a s i z i n g general izabi l i ty o f relat ions a m o n g conceptua l var iables are rev iewed and affirmed. One major impl icat ion o f typical cha l lenges to the external validity o f laboratory research is tested with aggress ion research: If laboratory research is low in external validity, then laboratory s tudies should fail to detect relat ions a m o n g var iables that are correlated with aggress ion in " rea l -wor ld" studies. Meta -ana lys i s was used to examine 5 s i tuat ional var iables (provocation, violent media , alcohol, anonymi ty , ho t temperature) and 3 individual difference var iables (sex, Type A personali ty, trait aggress iveness ) in real-world and laboratory aggress ion studies. Resul t s s t rongly suppor ted the ex t ema l validity o f trivial laboratory studies. Advice is g iven on how scholars m i gh t handle occasional descrepancies be tween laboratory and real-world f indings.