Mock Aggression: Navigating Affiliation and Disaffiliation in Interaction

One way people have of managing interpersonal conflict is what I call “mock aggression.” So far unexplored in interactional detail, mock aggression refers to the embodiments which, in one way or another, appear aggressive (punching, pinching, slapping, etc.) but are not designed to be, or oriented to as, serious physical threats. Mock aggression occurs between intimate interactants, and in this interactional situation, it sanctions transgressions and at the same time provides systematic opportunities for participants to engage in more affiliative interaction. The findings show that despite its aggressive appearance, mock aggression facilitates participants’ exit from a disaffiliative interaction, owing to its detailed design features, and thereby contributes to maintaining their social bonds. It is argued that a categorical affiliative versus disaffiliative perspective does not work for some interactional practices like mock aggression. Data are in Persian and collected in Iran.