Outrage helps, outrage hurts: How moral outrage predicts help and punishment behavior
Open Access
Author:
Spring, Victoria
Graduate Program:
Psychology
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
August 13, 2020
Committee Members:
Christopher Daryl Cameron, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Christopher Daryl Cameron, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Theresa K Vescio, Committee Member Jose Angel Soto, Committee Member Alan Richard Wagner, Outside Member Reginald Adams, Jr., Committee Member Kristin Ann Buss, Program Head/Chair
Keywords:
moral outrage anger choice architecture prosocial behavior collective action outrage
Abstract:
In recent years, it feels as if outrage has permeated every level of our society. The prevalence of outrage has led many scholars to speculate on its utility in a civil society—after all outrage, as a negative emotion, is often associated with aggression and retributiveness. However, other work has shown a potential use for outrage as a catalyst motivating collective action. In the present work, I explore how situational factors interface with outrage to funnel emotion into multiple types of prosocial behavior. In the first experiment, I investigate the role of choice set in producing reparative or punitive behavior. In the second experiment, I examine how strategic thinking and outrage might combine to generate effective activism, and attempt to establish emotion specificity. The third experiment uses linguistic analysis to identify whether outrage can play a role in constructive dialogue across partisan lines. Across the three experiments, I find mixed results; however, outrage consistently correlates with various types of prosocial behavior, suggesting a role for outrage in promoting collective action.
