Validating the voodoo doll task as a proxy for aggressive parenting behavior.

Six studies (N = 1,081 general population parents) assessed the validity of the Voodoo Doll Task (VDT) as a proxy for aggressive parenting behaviors.Participants were given an opportunity to symbolically inflict harm by choosing to stick "pins" into a doll representing their child.Individual differences in parents' trait aggression (Studies 1, 2, and 6), state hostility (Study 3), attitudes towards the corporal punishment of children (Study 4),...