Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Yale School of Management, Yale University.
Emotion. 2024 Apr;24(3):648-662. doi: 10.1037/emo0001286. Epub 2023 Sep 14.
After an interpersonal mishap-like blowing off plans with a friend, forgetting a spouse's birthday, or falling behind on a group project-wrongdoers typically feel guilty for their misbehavior, and victims feel angry. These emotions are believed to possess reparative functions; their expression prevents future mistakes from reiterating. However, little research has examined people's emotional reactions to mistakes that happen more than once. In seven preregistered studies, we assessed wrongdoers' and victims' emotions that arise after one transgression and again after another. Following two (or more) consecutive transgressions, wrongdoers felt guiltier, and victims felt angrier. However, from one transgression to the next, increases to anger were significantly greater than increases to guilt. Likewise, after transgression repair, anger decreased more than guilt did. In short, we found that anger is more elastic than guilt, which suggests a new perspective on emotions: The sensitivity to which emotions update in response to new circumstances. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
在人际失误后——例如放朋友鸽子、忘记配偶生日或在小组项目中落后——犯错者通常会为自己的行为感到内疚，而受害者会感到愤怒。这些情绪被认为具有修复功能；它们的表达可以防止未来的错误再次发生。然而，很少有研究调查人们对不止一次发生的错误的情绪反应。在七项预先注册的研究中，我们评估了在一次违规后和再次违规后犯错者和受害者产生的情绪。在两次（或更多次）连续违规后，犯错者感到更内疚，而受害者感到更愤怒。然而，从一次违规到下一次违规，愤怒的增加幅度明显大于内疚的增加幅度。同样，在违规修复后，愤怒的减少幅度大于内疚的减少幅度。简而言之，我们发现愤怒比内疚更有弹性，这为情绪提供了一个新的视角：情绪对新情况的反应灵敏度。
