Hostility is a risk factor for adverse health outcomes as diverse as cardiovascular disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cytokines have been suggested to mediate this relationship. We investigated whether in healthy men a relation existed between hostility and T-cell mitogen-induced cytokines and chemokines. Male Dutch military personnel (n=304) were included before deployment. El...

Individual differences in self-other disagreement may tap phenomena that have been notoriously difficult to assess. For example, subjects who believe they possess a trait while their acquaintances disagree may be exhibiting suppression. Further, subjects who deny a trait while acquaintances believe it is present may be displaying repression. In the first study, both subjects and their closest f...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether a specific component of hostility (i.e. cognitive or behavioural) may predict suicide in a prospective design, controlling for depressive mood. METHOD In 1993, 14,752 members of the 'GAZ et ELectricité' (GAZEL) cohort (10,819 men, mean age=49.0 years; 3933 women, mean age=46.2 years) completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and at least on...

The authors examined the associations of hostility measured in adulthood with subsequent body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)(2)) assessed at 4 time points over a 19-year period (1985-2004) in a United Kingdom cohort study. A total of 6,484 participants (4,494 men and 1,990 women) aged 35-55 years at baseline (1985-1988) completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. BMI was assessed upon m...

INTRODUCTION Hostility--a personality trait reflective of cynical attitudes and a general mistrust of others--is associated with smoking status and relapse risk. Yet, the mechanisms linking hostility and smoking are not entirely clear. In this lab study, we tested a socioaffective model that purports that high-hostility individuals smoke to cope with maladaptive social mood states (i.e., anger ...

The authors tested in 134 African American and European American children whether hostility measured at study entry predicted the metabolic syndrome risk factors an average of 3 years later. Hostility was measured with the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (W. W. Cook & D. M. Medley, 1954) and with ratings of Potential for Hostility from interview responses. Metabolic syndrome was based on having at ...

Contrary to the tendency of mediators to defuse negative emotions between adversaries by treating them kindly, we demonstrate the surprising effectiveness of hostile mediators in resolving conflict. Hostile mediators generate greater willingness to reach agreements between adversaries (Experiment 1). Consequently, negotiators interacting with hostile mediators are better able to reach agreement...