Introduction:

Aggression can be distinguished into reactive and proactive forms, which differ in their motivational and emotional characteristics. While reactive aggression is typically triggered by provocation and accompanied by heightened emotional arousal, proactive aggression is goal-directed, instrumentally motivated, and characterized by greater emotional control. Despite its relevance for antisocial behavior, proactive aggression is still assessed predominantly through self-report measures, and experimental paradigms specifically designed to capture it remain scarce, particularly for adolescents.

Methods:

The present study aimed to develop and provide preliminary validity evidence for a novel experimental paradigm, the Degree-of-Quiz-Difficulty Paradigm (DoQD), to objectively assess proactive aggression in adolescents and young adults. In this competitive task, participants (N = 54; Mage = 14.70, SDage = 1.70; 12–19 years) assigned quiz difficulty levels to themselves and an alleged opponent, with the opponent’s assigned difficulty serving as an index of proactive aggression.

Results:

Although the difficulty index was not associated with self-reported proactive aggression, it showed the expected significant associations with caregiver-reported externalizing behaviors, particularly rule-breaking behavior, suggesting links to instrumental aggression. In contrast, no associations emerged with psychophysiological stress indicators, supporting the notion that proactive aggression occurs without heightened emotional arousal. Higher difficulty indices were also associated with increased feelings of guilt during and after the task, indicating that guilt may accompany but not necessarily inhibit proactive aggressive behavior. Regarding personality traits, the difficulty index showed a significant negative association with cooperativeness, whereas associations with empathy were not significant after correction for multiple testing.

Discussion:

Overall, the findings provide preliminary validity support for the DoQD as an objective, time-efficient behavioral paradigm relevant to the assessment of proactive aggression, with evidence limited to selected validity indicators.