Behavioral Patterns towards People who Fail at ‘Taking a hint’ in Japanese Adolescent Groups:

This study aimed to categorise group behavioral patterns towards people who fail to ‘take a hint’ as well as clarify the aggressive and forgivable motives of adolescents who choose each behavioral pattern. An Internet survey was conducted with 314 Japanese college students. As a result of cluster analysis, the behavioral patterns were classified into three types: ’Non-Aggressive Type’, had low aggressive behavior scores; ‘Binding Dominant Type’, presented with direct aggression as the main behavior, and indirect aggression; and ‘Exclusion Type’, had a positive value for indirect aggression. In addition, differences in motivation based on behavioral patterns were examined using analysis of variance. The results revealed the following: (a) ‘Binding Dominant Type’ had two aspects: hostility towards the failure and a demand for a change in attitude; (b)’Exclusion Type’ considered the failure as a serious problem and tried to prevent the effect on the group by expelling the failure from the group; (c) ‘Non-Aggressive Type’ was characterized by higher forgiveness motives and tended to maintain the relationship by reframing the issue as less serious.