title: What elicits third-party anger? The effects of moral violation and others' outcome on anger and compassion.
abstract: People often get angry when they perceive an injustice that affects others but not themselves. In two studies, we investigated the elicitation of third-party anger by varying moral violation and others' outcome presented in newspaper articles. We found that anger was highly contingent on the moral violation. Others' outcome, although relevant for compassion, were not significantly relevant for anger (Study 1 and Study 2a) or less relevant for anger than for compassion (Study 2b). This indicates that people can be morally outraged: anger can be elicited by a perceived violation of moral values alone, independent of the harm done. A severe negative consequence for others is not necessary to elicit anger.
authors.affiliation: a Institut für Psychologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Landmann
authors.affiliation: a Institut für Psychologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hess
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000786:Anger; D003657:Decision Making; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Moral outrage; altruistic punishment; appraisal theory; cooperation; empathic anger