Anger and its consequences for judgment and behavior: Recent developments in social and political psychology

Abstract In the eyes of the public—and in a substantial amount of scholarly research—anger is often framed in a negative light, given its role in driving people to act in antisocial ways. However, anger also has the potential for social good, insofar as it focuses attention on, and motivates people to fix, perceived injustices. As we discuss, the foundational link between anger and a desire to rectify injustice has profoundly important implications that are relevant to research and theory in a variety of different disciplines (e.g., experimental social psychology, neuroscience, political science, personality). We begin this chapter by considering the methodological and theoretical challenges involved in the measurement of this feeling state, along with its relevance to our line of research on revenge, as well as the ideological consequences of threat. In the course of this discussion, we introduce a neo-Gibsonian framework of threat which allows for the fact that different types of threats, via anger, can exert different types of ideological consequences. A key prediction of this model—one that distinguishes it from current models of threat—is that activation of anger following threat has the potential to shift political attitudes to the “right” or to the “left,” depending on the nature of the threat at hand. These and other findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of this emotion, its relation to (perceived and actual) injustice, and its role in shaping relevant political beliefs.