Previous research has shown that angry people sometimes aggress to improve their mood. The present research tests whether people who have been treated unjustly seek revenge (i.e., retributive punishment) to improve their mood. The authors hypothesized that retributive punishment is generally not fuelled by a desire to improve one’s mood, whereas more destructive forms of aggression (e.g., venting one’s anger against people or inanimate objects) are. In Study 1, half of the participants were led to believe that their mood was frozen. In Study 2, half of the participants were led to believe that their mood would automatically improve at the end of the study by visiting a “good mood room” with snacks, beverages, and media. Retributive punishment was not affected by either mood management manipulation, whereas destructiveness was. Study 3 expands these findings by showing that retributive reactions were only reduced by a mood improvement manipulation when self-focus was induced.
AquinoK.TrippT. M.BiesR. J. (2006). Getting even or moving on? Power, procedural justice, and types of offense as predictors of revenge, forgiveness, reconciliation, and avoidance in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 653-658.
2.
BatsonC. D.KennedyC. L.NordL.-A.StocksE. L.FlemingD. A.MarzetteC. M.
…
ZergerT. (2007). Anger at unfairness: Is it moral outrage?European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 1272-1285.
3.
BaumeisterR. F.BushmanB. J. (2007). Angry emotions and aggressive behaviors. In SteffgenG.GollwitzerM. (Eds.), Emotions and aggressive behavior (pp. 61-75). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.
4.
BiesR. J.TrippT. M. (1996). Beyond distrust: “Getting even” and the need for revenge. In KramerR. M.TylerT. R. (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research (pp. 246-260). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
5.
BushmanB. J.BaumeisterR. F.PhillipsC. M. (2001). Do people aggress to improve their mood? Catharsis beliefs, affect regulation opportunity, and aggressive responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 17-32.
6.
CarlsmithK. M. (2006). The roles of retribution and utility in determining punishment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 437-451.
7.
CarlsmithK. M.DarleyJ. M. (2008). Psychological aspects of retributive justice. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 40, pp. 193-236). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
8.
CarlsmithK. M.DarleyJ. M.RobinsonP. H. (2002). Why do we punish? Deterrence and just deserts as motives for punishment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 284-299.
9.
CarlsmithK. M.WilsonT. D.GilbertD. T. (2008). The paradoxical consequences of revenge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1316-1324.
10.
CialdiniR. B.KenrickD. T. (1976). Altruism as hedonism: A social developmental perspective on the relationship of negative mood state and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 907-914.
11.
CropanzanoR.GoldmanB. M.FolgerR. (2003). Deontic justice: The role of moral principles in workplace fairness. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24, 1019-1024.
12.
DarleyJ. M.PittmanT. S. (2003). The psychology of compensatory and retributive justice. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 324-336.
13.
De CremerD. (2007). (Ed.). Advances in the psychology of justice and affect. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
14.
de QuervainD. J.-F.FischbacherU.TreyerV.SchellhammerM.SchnyderU.BuckA.FehrE. (2004). The neural basis of altruistic punishment. Science, 305, 1254-1258.
15.
DuvalT. S.WicklundR. A. (1972). A theory of objective self-awareness. New York, NY: Academic Press.
16.
EllsworthP. C.GrossS. R. (1994). Hardening of the attitudes: Americans’ views on the death penalty. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 19-52.
17.
EversC.FischerA. H.Rodriguez MosqueraP.MansteadA. S. R. (2005). Anger and social appraisal: A “spicy” sex difference?Emotion, 5, 258-266.
18.
FehrE.FischbacherU. (2004). Third-party punishment and social norms. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25, 63-87.
19.
FehrE.GächterS. (2000). Cooperation and punishment in public goods experiments. American Economic Review, 90, 980-994.
20.
FiskeA. P.TetlockP. E. (1997). Taboo trade-offs: Reactions to transactions that transgress the spheres of justice. Political Psychology, 18, 255-297.
21.
FolgerR.SkarlickiD. P. (2008). The evolutionary basis of deontic justice. In GillilandS.SteinerD.SkarlickiD. P. (Eds.), Research in social issues in management: Justice, morality, and social responsibility (pp. 29–62). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
22.
FolgerR.CropanzanoR.GoldmanB. (2005). What is the relationship between justice and morality? In GreenbergJ.ColquittJ. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 215–245). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
23.
FrijdaN. H. (1994). The lex talionis: On vengeance. In van GoozenS. H. M.van der PollN. E.SergeantJ. A. (Eds.), Emotions: Essays on emotion theory (pp. 263-289). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
24.
FrostR. O.GoolkasianG. A.ElyR. J.BlanchardF. A. (1982). Depression, restraint, and eating behavior. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 20, 113-121.
25.
GendollaG. H. E. (2000). On the impact of mood on behavior: An integrative theory and a review. Review of General Psychology, 4, 378-408.
26.
GendollaG. H. E.AbeleA. E.AndreiA.SpurkD.RichterM. (2005). Negative mood, self-focused attention, and the experience of physical symptoms: The joint impact hypothesis. Emotion, 5, 131-144.
27.
GoldbergJ. H.LernerJ. S.TetlockP. E. (1999). Rage and reason: The psychology of the intuitive prosecutor. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 781-795.
28.
GollwitzerM. (2007). How affective is revenge? Emotional processes involved in vengeful reactions to experienced injustice. In SteffgenG.GollwitzerM. (Eds.), Emotions and aggressive behavior (pp. 115-129). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.
29.
GollwitzerM. (2009). Justice and revenge. In OswaldM. E.BieneckS.Hupfeld-HeinemannJ. (Eds.), Social psychology of punishment of crime (pp. 137-156). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
30.
GollwitzerM.DenzlerM. (2009). What makes revenge so sweet: Seeing the offender suffer or delivering a message?Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 840-844.
31.
GollwitzerM.MederM.SchmittM. (2011). What gives victims satisfaction when they seek revenge?European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 364-374.
32.
GrantD. A. (1962). Testing the null hypothesis and the strategy and tactics of investigating theoretical models. Psychological Review, 69, 54-61.
33.
GreenwaldA. G. (1975). Consequences of prejudice against the null hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 82, 1-20.
KomoritaS. S.ParksC. D. (1996). Social dilemmas. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
36.
LarsenR. J. (2000). Toward a science of mood regulation. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 129-141.
37.
LarsenR. J.PrizmicZ. (2004). Affect regulation. In BaumeisterR. F.VohsK. D. (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 40-61). New York, NY: Guilford.
38.
LeithK. P.BaumeisterR. F. (1996). Why do bad moods increase self-defeating behavior? Emotion, risk-taking, and self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1250-1267.
39.
LiebermanJ. D.SolomonS.GreenbergJ.McGregorH. A. (1999). A hot new way to measure aggression: Hot sauce allocation. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 331-348.
40.
ManuciaG. K.BaumannD. J.CialdiniR. B. (1984). Mood influences in helping: Direct effects or side effects?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 357-364.
41.
McFarlandC.BuehlerR. (1998). The impact of negative affect on autobiographical memory: The role of self-focused attention to moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1424-1440.
42.
McFarlandC.BuehlerR.von RütiR.NguyenL.AlvaroC. (2007). The impact of negative moods on self-enhancing cognitions: The role of reflective vs. ruminative mood orientations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 728-750.
43.
MeierB. P.HinszV. B. (2004). A comparison of human aggression committed by groups and individuals: An interindividual-intergroup discontinuity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 551-559.
44.
MillerD. T. (2001). Disrespect and the experience of injustice. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 527-553.
45.
MorrisW. N.ReillyN. P. (1987). Toward the self-regulation of mood: Theory and research. Motivation and Emotion, 11, 215-249.
46.
MussweilerT.FörsterJ. (2000). The sex --> aggression link: A perception-behavior dissociation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 507-520.
47.
NozickR. (1981). Philosophical explanations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
48.
O’MaraE. M.JacksonL. E.BatsonC. D.GaertnerL. (2011). Will moral outrage stand up? Distinguishing among emotional reactions to a moral violation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 173-179.
49.
PlattJ. R. (1964). Strong inference. Science, 146, 347-353.
50.
ScheierM.FenigsteinA.BussA. H. (1974). Self-awareness and physical aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 264-273.
51.
SolomonR. C. (1994). Sympathy and vengeance: The role of emotions in justice. In van GoozenS. H. M.van der PollN. E.SergeantJ. A. (Eds.), Emotions: Essays on emotion theory (pp. 291-311). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
52.
SolomonR. C. (1999). Justice v. vengeance: On law and the satisfaction of emotion. In BandesS. A. (Ed.), The passions of law (pp. 123-148). New York, NY: University Press.
53.
SpielbergerC. D.JohnsonE. G.RussellS. F.CraneR. S.JacobsG. A.WordenT. J. (1985). The experience and expression of anger. In ChesneyM. A.RosenmanR. H. (Eds.), Anger and hostility in cardiovascular and behavioral disorders (pp. 5-29). New York, NY: Hemisphere/McGraw-Hill.
54.
StoutenJ.De CremerD.Van DijkE. (2006). Violating equality in social dilemmas: Emotional and retributive reactions as a function of trust, attribution, and honesty. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 894-906.
55.
TrippT. M.BiesR. J.AquinoK. (2007). A vigilante model of justice: Revenge, reconciliation, forgiveness, and avoidance. Social Justice Research, 20, 10-34.
56.
Van DijkE.WilkeH. (1993). Differential interests, equity, and public good provision. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 1-16.
57.
Van DijkE.WilkeH. (1996). Tacit coordination and fairness judgments in social dilemmas. In LiebrandW. B. G.MessickD. M. (Eds.), Frontiers in social dilemmas research (pp. 117-134). Berlin, Germany: Springer.
58.
VidmarN. (2001). Retribution and revenge. In SandersJ.HamiltonV.L. (Eds.), Handbook of justice research in law (pp. 31-63). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
59.
WoodJ. V.SaltzbergJ. A.GoldsamtL. A. (1990). Does affect induce self-focused attention?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 899-908.
