Academic Abstract of the Day

Speaking of aggression - here's the abstract to a paper entitled "Talking Smack: Verbal Aggression in Professional Wrestling" being presented today at the International Communication Association:

The current study presents the results of a content analysis conducted on the verbal aggression found in 36 hours of televised professional wrestling. The coding scheme was adapted from the National Television Violence Study and past research on televised verbal aggression. The results show that an abundance of verbal aggression is present in televised professional wrestling. In particular, swearing, competence attacks, and character attacks. Notably, these forms of aggression are committed most often by perpetrators with no clear dispositional characteristics, and without any apparently justifiable reason – most often done seemingly just for amusement.