When does anger boost status?

Publication date: November 2019Source: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 85Author(s): Celia Gaertig, Alixandra Barasch, Emma E. Levine, Maurice E. SchweitzerAbstractA 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.

Source: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology - November 11, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research