Angry Individuals Research Articles

Rage as a political emotion

AbstractGeorge Floyd's murder by a white policeman has sparked the largest urban uprising in US cities since the 1960s. By contextualising this wave of uprisings in the broader context of similar uprisings in twenty‐first‐century US cities, this paper shows that such an uprising has long been in the making with the violence, murders and revolts that have marked US cities since the turn of the century. My argument in this paper is against the pathological framing of these uprisings that evokes the alleged irrational anger of those who participate in the uprisings and the bad behaviour of a few police officers. Such a framing directs attention away from the structural violence that is at the source of these uprisings, and perpetuates racialised images of those who participate in the uprisings as irrational and impulsive. These uprisings, I argue, are not the actions of irrationally angry individuals mindlessly following the crowds; they cannot be reduced to gratuitous looting and burning, and they are not triggered by some police officers behaving badly. The sources of this urban rage lie in systematic, mostly unchecked, violence. The rage that erupts in these uprisings is a political emotion guided by cognition and judgements about right and wrong, just and unjust, rather than a pathological reaction spurred by uncontrollable impulses. It is a deliberate response to white contempt and the violence associated with it.

Power pose effects on approach and avoidance decisions in response to social threat.

Individuals' opportunities for action in threatening social contexts largely depend on their social power. While powerful individuals can afford to confront aggressors and dangers, powerless individuals need others' support and better avoid direct challenges. Here, we investigated if adopting expansive or contracted poses, which signal dominance and submission, impacts individuals' approach and avoidance decisions in response to social threat signals using a within-subject design. Overall, participants more often chose to avoid rather than to approach angry individuals, but showed no clear approach or avoidance preference for fearful individuals. Crucially, contracted poses considerably increased the tendency to avoid angry individuals, whereas expansive poses induced no substantial changes. This suggests that adopting power-related poses may impact action decisions in response to social threat signals. The present results emphasize the social function of power poses, but should be replicated before drawing strong conclusions.

Trait anger and negative interpretation bias in neutral face perception.

Anger is a basic emotion helping people to achieve goals by preparing the body for action and prompting others to change their behavior but is also associated with health issues and risks. Trait anger, the disposition to experience angry feelings, goes along with an attribution of hostile traits to others. Negative distortions in the interpretation of social information have also been observed in anxiety and depression. The present study examined the associations between components of anger and negative interpretation tendencies in the perception of ambiguous and neutral schematic faces controlling for anxiety, depressed mood, and other variables. A sample of 150 young adults performed a computer-based perception of facial expressions task and completed the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2) along with other self-report measures and tests. Trait anger and anger expression correlated with the perception of negative affects in neutral but not in ambiguous faces. More specifically, trait anger was linked to the attribution of anger, sadness, and anxiety to neutral faces. Trait anger predicted perceived negative affects in neutral faces when adjusting for anxiety, depression, and state anger. For neutral schematic faces, the present data support an association between trait anger and negatively biased interpretation of facial expression, which is independent of anxiety and depressed mood. The negative interpretation of neutral schematic faces in trait angry individuals seems not only to comprise the attribution of anger but also of negative emotions signaling weakness. Neutral schematic facial expressions might be useful stimuli in the future study of anger-related interpretation biases.

Spontaneous instrumental avoidance learning in social contexts

Adaptation to our social environment requires learning how to avoid potentially harmful situations, such as encounters with aggressive individuals. Threatening facial expressions can evoke automatic stimulus-driven reactions, but whether their aversive motivational value suffices to drive instrumental active avoidance remains unclear. When asked to freely choose between different action alternatives, participants spontaneously—without instruction or monetary reward—developed a preference for choices that maximized the probability of avoiding angry individuals (sitting away from them in a waiting room). Most participants showed clear behavioral signs of instrumental learning, even in the absence of an explicit avoidance strategy. Inter-individual variability in learning depended on participants’ subjective evaluations and sensitivity to threat approach feedback. Counterfactual learning best accounted for avoidance behaviors, especially in participants who developed an explicit avoidance strategy. Our results demonstrate that implicit defensive behaviors in social contexts are likely the product of several learning processes, including instrumental learning.

Fear or Loathing: Affect, Political Economy, and Prejudice

AbstractEthnonationalist politics have been on the rise in the United States since the 2008 financial crisis, culminating with the rise of Donald Trump. We examine why two seemingly unconnected things—economic crises and prejudice—so often arise simultaneously. Combining theories of economics and emotions, we connect economic crises and prejudice through the role of emotional response to crises, namely anger and anxiety. We use two survey experiments in the United States to test various theories of how emotions might connect economic threat to negative intergroup attitudes. We find that economic concerns increase both anger and anxiety among individuals, but that these emotions have distinct effects on prejudice. Angry individuals show increased prejudice, but only towards groups one is ideologically predisposed to be prejudiced towards. In contrast, anxiety exhibits few consistent effects on prejudice.

Hate Speech as a Politico-Religious Tool in Contemporary Zimbabwe

Abstract The dawn of the new second Republic of Zimbabwe raised the hopes of the people of Zimbabwe for a moment. Zimbabwe has experienced diverse challenges, including socioeconomic meltdowns, a decline in the rule of law, and human rights abuse. To address these challenges politicians and religious leaders use ‘hate speech’ to express their ideologies and criticise their opponents’ struggle to win people. The availability of social media has made it easy for these attacking statements to reach a wider audience. Through documentary analysis, this article explores how politicians and religious leaders use hate speech as electioneering and a response to the problems bedeviling Zimbabwe. This study concludes that hate speech from politicians and religious leaders is socialising some Zimbabweans into violent, angry individuals, murderers, and vandals. The problem of hate speech is that it creates violence, causes psychological effects, dehumanises people, and conditions a negative national trait.

Impact of total sleep deprivation and related mood changes on approach-avoidance decisions to threat-related facial displays.

Study ObjectivesTotal sleep deprivation is known to have significant detrimental effects on cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. Nonetheless, the mechanisms by which total sleep loss disturbs decision-making in social contexts are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impact of total sleep deprivation on approach/avoidance decisions when faced with threatening individuals, as well as the potential moderating role of sleep-related mood changes.MethodsParticipants (n = 34) made spontaneous approach/avoidance decisions in the presence of task-irrelevant angry or fearful individuals, while rested or totally sleep deprived (27 h of continuous wakefulness). Sleep-related changes in mood and sustained attention were assessed using the Positive and Negative Affective Scale and the psychomotor vigilance task, respectively.ResultsRested participants avoided both fearful and angry individuals, with stronger avoidance for angry individuals, in line with previous results. On the contrary, totally sleep deprived participants favored neither approach nor avoidance of fearful individuals, while they still comparably avoided angry individuals. Drift-diffusion models showed that this effect was accounted for by the fact that total sleep deprivation reduced value-based evidence accumulation toward avoidance during decision making. Finally, the reduction of positive mood after total sleep deprivation positively correlated with the reduction of fearful display avoidance. Importantly, this correlation was not mediated by a sleep-related reduction in sustained attention.ConclusionsAll together, these findings support the underestimated role of positive mood-state alterations caused by total sleep loss on approach/avoidance decisions when facing ambiguous socio-emotional displays, such as fear.

Source memory and social exchange in young children.

Reciprocal interactions require memories of social exchanges; however, little is known about how we remember social partner actions, especially during childhood when we start forming peer-to-peer relationships. This study examined if the expectation-violation effect, which has been observed in adults' source memory, exists among 5-6-year-old children. Forty participants played a coin collection game where they either received or lost coins after being shown an individual with a smiling or angry expression. This set-up generated congruent (smiling-giver and angry-taker) versus incongruent (smiling-taker and angry-giver) conditions. In the subsequent tasks, the children were asked to recall which actions accompanied each individual. The children considered the person with incongruent conditions as being stranger than the person with congruent conditions, suggesting that the former violated the children's emotion-based expectations. However, no heightened source memory was found for the incongruent condition. Instead, children seem to better recognise the action of angry individuals than smiling individuals, suggesting that angry facial expressions are more salient for children's source memory in a social exchange.

The influence of emotions on information processing and persuasion: A differential appraisals perspective

The present research demonstrates for the first time that the very same emotion can influence information processing and persuasion depending on the appraisal of the emotion that is highlighted. Across studies, we predicted and found that anger, surprise, and awe can each lead to relatively higher or lower levels of information processing depending on whether it is the appraisal of pleasantness/unpleasantness or the appraisal of confidence/doubt within each of these emotions that is salient. When individuals focus on the unpleasantness that accompanies anger, relatively higher levels of processing occur (as indicated by more argument quality discrimination in attitudes) compared to when angry individuals focus on the confidence appraisal. In the latter case they process information to a relatively lesser degree (as illustrated by reduced argument quality effects on attitudes). The opposite interaction beween appraisal and argument quality was found for relatively more pleassant but uncertain emotions, such as surprise and awe. These effects of emotion on information processing were mediated by changes in thought favorability, and led to behavioral consequences. Importantly, the present studies also specify under what conditions the appraisals of the same emotion influence persuasion by affecting processing or by influencing meta-cognitive processes such as thought validation (Briñol et al., 2018), with the timing of the inductions playing a critical role.

Anger contributes to the spread of COVID-19 misinformation

A survey conducted over South Korean adults (N=513) reveals that emotions, specifically anger, contribute to the broader spread of misinformation on COVID-19 by leading angry individuals to consider false claims to be “scientifically credible.” This pattern is more evident among conservatives than liberals. Our finding sheds light on new measures and journalistic interventions that could alleviate the public’s anger and foster science-based conversations during a public health crisis.

Rapid approach-avoidance responses to emotional displays reflect value-based decisions: Neural evidence from an EEG study

The ability to swiftly and accurately respond to others' non-verbal signals, such as their emotional expressions, constitutes one of the building blocks for social adaptation. It is debated whether rapid action tendencies to socio-emotional signals solely depend upon stimulus-evoked pre-decisional motor bias or can also engage goal-directed (decisional) processes that involve the arbitration between action alternatives. Here, we used drift diffusion models (DDMs) of choice and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the impact of threat-signaling individuals (angry or fearful) on spontaneous approach-avoidance decisions. Participants choose to avoid angry individuals more often than fearful ones and this effect was stronger for intense expressions. Diffusion models showed that this pattern of choice was accounted for by a process of value-based evidence accumulation, suggesting an active competition between action options. At the brain level, we found that EEG activity preceding movement initiation (200 ms) in a mid-frontal cluster of electrodes – sourced in the orbital and ventromedial frontal cortices – encoded value difference between chosen and unchosen options, thus predicting participant's choices on a trial-by-trial basis. Furthermore, value difference also modulated EEG signal during feedback about the decision. Altogether, the present findings convincingly support the underestimated influence of implicit goal-directed mechanisms in approach-avoidance responses to socio-emotional signals.

Action opportunities modulate attention allocation under social threat.

When entering a subway car affording multiple targets for action, how do we decide, very quickly, where to sit, particularly when in the presence of a potential danger? It is unclear, from existing motor and emotion theories, whether our attention would be allocated toward the seat on which we intend to sit on or whether it would be oriented toward an individual that signals the presence of potential danger. To address this question, we explored spontaneous action choices and attention allocation in a realistic context, where a threat-related signal (an angry or fearful individual) and the target for action in that situation could compete for attentional priority. Results showed that participants chose the actions that avoided angry individuals and were more confident when approaching those with a fearful expression. In addition, covert and overt measures of attention showed a stronger avoidance effect for angry, compared to fearful, individuals. Crucially, these effects of anger and fear on attention allocation required the presence of action possibilities in the scene. Taken together, our findings show that in a realistic context offering competing action possibilities, threat-related distractors shape both action selection and attention allocation accordingly to their social function. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

When does anger boost status?

A substantial literature asserts that anger expressions boost status. Across seven studies (N = 4027), we demonstrate that this assertion is often wrong. Rather than boosting status, many anger expressions predictably diminish status. We find that the intensity of expressed anger profoundly influences social perceptions and status conferral. Compared to mildly or moderately angry individuals, extremely angry people are perceived to be less competent and warm, and are thus accorded less status. We also contrast expressions of anger with expressions of sadness across different levels of intensity. At low levels of intensity anger expressions boost status conferral compared to sadness expressions and a neutral control condition, but at high levels of intensity anger expressions harm status conferral compared to sadness expressions and a neutral control condition. Taken together, our findings reveal that the relationship between expressed emotion and status is far more nuanced than prior work has assumed, and that the magnitude of an emotion can substantively moderate its effects.

It's a challenge! Empathizing with sad but not with angry individuals results in cardiovascular reactivity consistent with a challenge motivational state.

The question of what feeling with another person elicits in the empathizing individual has instigated innumerable studies mainly focusing on the affective valence of empathy and the resulting consequences for prosocial behavior (cf. the empathy-altruism debate). The present research may contribute to this long-lasting debate by examining the cardiovascular reactivity of the empathizing individual. To that effect, the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1996) was applied and impedance cardiography was implemented while individuals were instructed to feel with a target person who reacted differently to a need-causing event (with anger vs. sadness). Thereby, it is possible to test whether empathizers process coping-related cues when feeling with a target person in need. Results of one experiment (N = 160 women) revealed that empathizing with a sad (vs. an angry) target results in cardiovascular reactivity consistent with relative challenge-an energy-mobilizing state associated with relatively high resources. These findings suggest that coping-related appraisal processes influence how the empathizing individual reacts in terms of cardiovascular reactivity. This, in turn, provides novel insights regarding the affective-motivational outcomes of empathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Differentiating the effects of anger and sadness: A perspective of spontaneous trait inference.

In the present research, three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of anger and sadness on spontaneous trait inferences (STIs). Using a probe recognition paradigm, Experiment 1 revealed that angry participants made more errors in response to probes following trait-implying behaviours than sad participants did. Using a false recognition paradigm, Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that angry participants made more errors in response to systematic pair trials than sad participants did. The three experiments provided convergent evidence that angry individuals were more inclined to form STIs than sad individuals were. The current research first demonstrated the different effects of specific negative mood states (anger vs. sadness) on STIs, providing further insight into the relationship between mood and STIs.

Testing the impact of frustration and anger when responsibility is low

Anger is a powerful emotion and it is important to understand its role in human interaction. Angry individuals may become hostile in their dealings with others, and this has strategic consequences. Battigalli, Dufwenberg, and Smith (2015; BDS) develop a formal framework where frustration and anger affect interaction and shape economic outcomes. This paper presents an experiment designed to test predictions based on versions of the theory that involve no or low responsibility of the punished person. In this specific context, I find only limited support for the theory: While unfulfilled expectations about material payoffs generate negative emotions in subjects (which is in line with BDS’ conceptualization of frustration), these emotions do not affect subjects’ behavior in the experiment.

Emotion effects on choice deferral

PurposeChoice deferral (making no choice at all) is a common phenomenon, especially when individuals face a difficult decision. This is further exacerbated in the presence of negative incidental emotions which can have a wide-ranging influence on various aspects of decision-making. Previous research suggests that process (vs outcome) accountability might be more effective at mitigating the effect of irrelevant factors. This paper aims to examine whether accountability attenuates emotion effects on choice and examines the differences in the efficacy of the two accountability types.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the appraisal tendency framework to propose differences between same valenced emotions on choice deferral and predicts the moderating role of process versus outcome accountability. Two experiments are conducted to test the predictions and the results analyzed using logistic regression.FindingsThe authors find that outcome and process accountability have different moderating effects on emotion and choice deferral relationship: under outcome accountability, angry individuals are more likely to defer choice while under process accountability, differences in choice across emotion conditions are attenuated. As predicted, differences between anger and fear on the certainty appraisal and thereby information processing, mediate the effects of emotion on choice deferral in the outcome (but not process) condition.Originality/valueThis research studies the intersection of two developing research streams, affect and accountability, by focusing on specific affective states (anger and fear) and specific accountability types (outcome and process) in the important context of decision avoidance in consumer behavior. Thus, theoretical understanding in both domains is advanced and the benefits of specific accountability types clarified. Key implications for consumers and future research directions are also discussed.

Back to the basics: how feelings of anger affect cooperation

PurposeThe authors propose that angry individuals are much more likely to consider the emotional state of their partner than are neutral individuals. They then apply a lay theory dictating that anger decreases cooperation and react accordingly by lowering their own level of cooperation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors report four experiments involving different samples, manipulations, payment schemes and interfaces. The methodological approach was to capitalize on the positives of experimental research (e.g. establishing causality) while also trying to conceptually replicate the findings in different settings.FindingsThe authors found evidence for a lay theory (i.e. expectation) that anger decreases cooperation, but that actual cooperation was lowest when angry individuals were paired with other angry individuals, supporting the hypotheses.Research limitations/implicationsAnger can spill over from unrelated contexts to affect cooperation, and incidental anger by itself is not enough to decrease cooperation. However, the findings are limited to anger and cannot necessarily be used to understand the effects of other emotions.Practical implicationsBefore entering into a context that requires cooperation, such as a negotiation, be wary of the emotional state of both yourself and of your partner. This paper suggests that only if both parties are angry, then the likelihood of cooperation is low.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, they are the first researchers to address the question of how incidental anger affects single-round cooperation. By going back to the basics, the authors believe that the findings fill a gap in existing research and offer a building block for future research on anger and cooperation.

More Than Just “Blowing off Steam”: The Roles of Anger and Advocacy in Promoting Positive Outcomes at Work

AbstractEmployee anger can be suppressed or quieted so that angry individuals only vent frustrations to supportive colleagues, rather than approach those responsible or in an organizational position to help remedy the problematic situation. The Dual Threshold Model (Geddes & Callister, ) argues that although these “muted anger” venting episodes may increase unfavorable organizational outcomes, they also may prompt participants or observers of these displays to engage in advocacy or surrogacy on behalf of an angry colleague. The research reported here empirically tests this proposition and reports that advocating on behalf of one's angry colleague can enhance individual relationships at work as well as organizational functioning. Findings also show that observer felt anger intensity is a primary motivator for prompting anger advocacy and, surprisingly, advocacy is less likely on behalf of close colleagues.

Autobiographical Memory in the Angry Self.

The impact of anger on autobiographical recall was examined in two studies. In Experiment 1, 76 participants differing in trait anger completed an autobiographical memory task (AMT). In Experiment 2, 50 participants with elevated trait anger were either provoked or not provoked and subsequently completed an AMT. Across both studies, participants with high dispositional anger reported more anger-related memories, describing themselves as the primary agent of anger. In Experiment 2, provoked participants reported more memories describing themselves as the target of anger. These findings highlight the distinct patterns of memory recall associated with trait versus state anger. Findings are discussed in terms of retrieval biases operating in angry individuals and proposals stemming from self-memory system models of autobiographical memory.