Coping With Experiences of Sociomoral Violations Through Consumption of Anger-Eliciting Content

Nira Munichor*, Yael Steinhart

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We are inundated with daily occurrences of discrimination and racism. Such events violate consumers' core moral values and can lead them to experience negative emotions and feelings of vulnerability. Surprisingly, instead of avoiding content that triggers additional negative feelings, many also actively seek out anger-eliciting content. Drawing on the idea that anger can fulfill a positive psychic role, we suggest that consuming anger-eliciting content can serve as a means of coping with sociomoral violations. In six experiments, we show that such violations enhance people's tendency to consume content they expect will make them angry. This effect occurs because anger serves to protect positive self-perceptions following sociomoral violations; indeed, the effect is mediated by the desire to feel more valuable and attenuated when self-perceptions are enhanced by alternative means. Our findings shed new light on how individuals might use consumption as a strategy to cope with sociomoral violations.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPsychology and Marketing
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

Funding

FundersFunder number
Jeremy Coller Foundation
Henry Crown Institute of Business Research
Israel Science Foundation356/19

    Keywords

    • anger
    • consumption
    • self-affirmation
    • self-perceptions
    • sociomoral violations

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