The influence of religious concepts on the effects of blame appraisals on negative emotions

Abstract

This research examined the regulatory effects of religious concepts on appraisal-emotion processes, focusing on concepts related to God and the relationships between blame appraisals and anger and guilt. In two experimental studies (Studies 1 and 2), blame appraisals were manipulated while participants were exposed to a God or neutral prime, in the context of a failed laboratory task. In an event-sampling study (Study 3), daily blame appraisals and emotions were measured repeatedly in naturalistic environments and their relationships under high perceived moral unacceptability were examined in relation to participants’ the tendency to focus on God (God-focus). All three studies consistently found evidence that higher activation of God concepts was associated with a weaker relationship between other-blame and anger. In contrast, God concepts did not moderate the relationship between blame and guilt. The results also indicate that both self- and other-blame can contribute to guilt, and God concepts exert no consistent effects on the blame appraisals. These findings support the God-prosociality link, imply that supernatural monitoring effects influence anger but not guilt, and suggest that thoughts of God can lower anger but do not mitigate nor magnify guilt.