Prentice-Dunn and Rogers (1982) conducted this study in order to test their theory of “differential self-awareness”, which
postulates that there are two crucial ways in which an individual’s behavior may become disinhibited and lead to
aggression. Firstly, accountablility cues, such as anonymity and diffused responsibility, decrease the individual’s accountability for behavior by making them less aware of their public self, thereby reducing public self-awareness. Consequently, individuals are less concerned with other’s evaluations and do not expect to experience negative consequences. Second, attentional cues such as group cohesiveness and physiological arousal reduce private self-awareness, whereby attention is drawn away form the individual and his or her behavior. This leads to an internal deindividuated state that is marked by decreased private self-awareness and altered thinking, which in turn results in reduced self-regulation and decreased responsiveness to internal standards of suitable behavior. Groups of subjects were exposed to conditions in which their attention was either focused internally or externally and to conditions in which their accountability was either increased or decreased. In order for subjects in the external attentional condition to focus their attention outward, they were placed in a softly lit room in which they played stimulating video games and interacted verbally while loud music was playing in the background. Subjects in the internal attentional cues condition were placed in a quiet, light room, performed individual tasks and were not allowed to interact. Subjects were consequently allowed to aggress against a victim. Prentice-Dunn and Rogers (1982) hypothesis that exposure to cues inducing an external focus of attention and low accountability leads to increased levels of aggression was supported. Thus, aggression was mediated by exposure to external attentional cues that resulted in an internal deindividuated state characterized by reduced private self-awareness. This study provided evidence for the two-way model of aggression of “differential self-awareness”. However, because it fails to provide evidence for the hypothesized internal deindividuated state, it therefore remains to be demonstrated how exactly
deindividuation interferes with self-regulation.