The experience of anger and sadness in response to hurtful behavior: Effects of gender-pairing and national culture

Abstract

We report a study of recalled experiences of anger and sadness following hurtful events, focusing on the differentiated effects of cognitive appraisals, culture, and gender of perpetrator and subject. Results from a sample of 321 participants recruited in Hong Kong and the United States show that emotional experiences in response to hurt differ cross-nationally. We found that participants’ reports of hurtful experiences were related to their experience of anger and sadness, with anger responses proportional to the perception of perpetrator responsibility for the hurt. Compared to Hong Kong participants, Americans reported experiencing more anger, whereas Hong Kong participants’ experience of anger was ameliorated by familiarity with the perpetrator. The results for gender pair effects showed that male participants reported their experience of anger following a hurtful event was reduced when the perpetrator was female, while their experience of sadness was reduced when the perpetrator was another male. We discuss the implications of our findings for emotion management in Hong Kong and the United States.