Considerable effort has been devoted to investigating various aspects of love and affection, but there have been few studies about direct expressions of affection. Relationships between gender composition of a dyad and the affection/aggression expressed by the dyad were examined as was the possibility of increasing the amount of affectionate responding in dyads for two groups of college students. For the first study (N=108 students), results indicated that male-male dyads were significantly less affectionate than female-female or male-female dyads. Results of the second study (N=66 students) indicated that participants exposed to a film depicting tragic death were significantly more affectionate than the control group subjects. Sex differences were found in relationships between affectionate responding and aggressive responding as well as responses made after the receipt of affection or aggression. The findings suggest that the strengthening of affectionate bonds among people may lead to a decline of aggressive expression among these individuals. (Author/JAC)