Gender-related effects in the perception of anger expression

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of sex of stimulus person, sex type of subject, and sex of subject on the social perception of anger expression. One hundred and sixty-six female and 100 male subjects completed a questionnaire that consisted of 10 vignettes depicting the expression of anger by either a female or a male stimulus person. For each vignette, subjects rated the psychological balance, expected frequency of behavior, perceived degree of anger, and appropriateness of behavior. Overall, female stimulus persons were rated higher on all dependent measures, but only male raters significantly differentiated between male and female stimulus persons. Generally, female subjects gave higher ratings, but viewed angry behavior as less appropriate than did male subjects. Ratings were also found to be related to subjects' scores on Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire scales that involved socially undesirable traits. Post hoc analysis indicated that the type of anger response (“aggressive” or “nonaggressive”) was also an important variable, especially for the female subjects.