Anger and disgust shape judgments of social sanctions across cultures, especially in high individual autonomy societies
Per Andersson, Irina Vartanova, Daniel Västfjäll, Gustav Tinghög, Pontus Strimling, Junhui Wu, Isabela Hazin, Charity S. Akotia, Alisher Aldashev, Giulia Andrighetto, Adote Anum, Gizem Arıkan, Fatémeh Baghérian, Davide Barrera, Dana Basnight-Brown, Birzhan Batkeyev, Elizaveta Berezina, Marie Björnstjerna, Paweł Boski, И.Б. Бовина, Bùi Thị Huyền, Đorđe Čekrlija, Hoon‐Seok Choi, Carlos C. Contreras‐Ibáñez, Rui Costa‐Lopes, Mícheál de Barra, Piyanjali de Zoysa, Angela Rachael Dorrough, N.V. Dvoryanchikov, Jan B. Engelmann, Hyun Euh, Xia Fang, Susann Fiedler, Olivia Foster‐Gimbel, Márta Fülöp, Ragna B. Garðarsdóttir, Colin Mathew Hugues D. Gill, Andreas Glöckner, Sylvie Graf, Ani Grigoryan, Vladimir Gritskov, Katarzyna Growiec, Peter Haľama, Andree Hartanto, Tim Hopthrow, Martina Hřebı́čková, Dzintra Iliško, Hirotaka Imada, Hansika Kapoor, Kerry Kawakami, Narine Khachatryan, Наталія Харченко, Toko Kiyonari, Michal Kohút, Lisa M. Leslie, Yang Li, Norman P. Li, Zhuo Li, Kadi Liik, Angela T. Maitner, Bernardo Manhique, Harry Manley, Imed Medhioub, Sari Mentser, Pegah Nejat, Orlando Júlio André Nipassa, Ravit Nussinson, Nneoma G. Onyedire, Ike E. Onyishi, Penny Panagiotopoulou, Lorena R. Pérez-Floriano, Minna Persson, Anna‐Maija Pirttilä‐Backman, Marianna Pogosyan, Jana L. Raver, Ricardo Borges Rodrigues, Sara Romanò, Pedro Romero, Inari Sakki, Álvaro San Martín, Sara Sherbaji, Hiroshi Shimizu, Brent Simpson, Erna Szabo, Kosuke Takemura, Maria Luísa Mendes Teixeira, Napoj Thanomkul, Habib Tiliouine, Giovanni A. Travaglino, Yannis Tsirbas, Sita Widodo, Rizqy Amelia Zein, Lina Zirganou-Kazolea, Kimmo Eriksson
Abstract
When someone violates a social norm, others may think that some sanction would be appropriate. We examine how the experience of emotions like anger and disgust relate to the judged appropriateness of sanctions, in a pre-registered analysis of data from a large-scale study in 56 societies. Across the world, we find that individuals who experience anger and disgust over a norm violation are more likely to endorse confrontation, ostracism and, to a smaller extent, gossip. Moreover, we find that the experience of anger is consistently the strongest predictor of judgments of confrontation, compared to other emotions. Although the link between state-based emotions and judgments may seem universal, its strength varies across countries. Aligned with theoretical predictions, this link is stronger in societies, and among individuals, that place higher value on individual autonomy. Thus, autonomy values may increase the role that emotions play in guiding judgments of social sanctions.