Mediated Aggression

Mediated aggression is an agonistic interaction in which fighting and other aggressive behaviors are avoided. Mediated aggression is more commonly seen in laboratory settings than escalated aggression, due to the already established social hierarchies of dominance within the home cage.

In a mediated aggression interaction, one animal backs down in response to a threat by fleeing or submitting before aggressive behavior occurs, thereby avoiding the danger of escalated aggression.

Agonistic Interactions

Mediated aggression normally represents the vast majority of mouse agonistic interactions, and is widely misinterpreted in the literature. In contrast, escalated aggression occurs when a subordinate responds to a threat behavior with an aggressive behavior, most typically an aggressive bite. Escalated aggression, as the name implies, escalates until one animal shows flight and submissive behavior, or, in a worst-case scenario, is killed or castrated. (Male mice attempt to castrate each other when they fight, and consequently withdraw their testicles into the body cavity during aggression.)