A good analogy is with dogs. Beat one breed of dog and it will cower in fear around humans to avoid bneing hit. Beat another bread of dog and it will attack humans to defend itself to prevent being hit.
Sorry to insert a random comment here, but as someone who has trained and rehabilitated abused dogs for going on ten years, working with dozens of breeds, that is just not true. Displays of aggressive behavior in dogs as a response to physical abuse are dependent on individual socialization and exposure to environmental phenomena, not breed characteristics. That breed determines all aspects of how a dog will react to abuse is a fallacy.