Does it really hurt? Making sense of varieties of anger

Abstract

While research has shown that consumer anger causes a range of negative consequences, the conceptualization and measurement of this emotion remain inconsistent. Some studies link anger to consumer revenge motivated by a desire to hurt the company, while others associate anger with a desire to cooperate with the company. This inconsistency is caused by the fact that anger is a broad label used to refer to almost any brand failure. We argue that, rather than considering anger as a single construct, scholars should distinguish between a supportive facet of anger, which comprises feelings of annoyance, frustration and other mild negative feelings, and a vindictive facet of anger, which comprises feelings of intense anger, rage, and outrage. These two facets of anger reconcile divergent arguments presented in past research. Research benefits from moving beyond the generic label of anger to consider supportive and vindictive facets of anger that influence consumers' reactions under different circumstances. Only vindictive anger prompts consumers to take revenge and punish the company for unfair treatment. Supportive anger triggers instead a desire to solve the problem by cooperating with the company. This study presents important managerial implications for assessing and managing feelings of anger following brand failures.

The psychology of frustration: Appraisals, outcomes, and service recovery

“…Emotions (Grandey et al, 2004; Ruth et al, 2002), and in particular frustration are a key element in customer satisfaction and loyalty in service encounters (Gelbrich, 2010; Guchait & Namasivayam, 2012; Van Steenburg et al, 2013). Failure is known to generate a variety of negative emotions, such as anger, regret or frustration (Antonetti et al, 2020; Gelbrich, 2010; Harrison‐Walker, 2012, 2019a; Hudson et al, 2017). Using a valence‐based approach to emotions, Smith and Bolton (2002) showed that the magnitude and type of service failure impacted negative emotions with subsequent effects on satisfaction.…”

“…Smith and Ellsworth (1985) place frustration towards the “other” responsibility end of the spectrum rather than “self” responsibility, lending support to the idea that when one blames another person for the emotion‐evoking event, frustration occurs. More recent work in the customer service literature (Antonetti et al, 2020) suggests that attribution of blame to the provider leads to “supportive anger” (i.e., frustration, irritation, annoyance) but not to “vindictive anger” (fury, rage, loathing). Other scholars also propose that attributing responsibility for perceived incompetence or inadequate training of the service provider generates frustration (Harrison‐Walker, 2012; Hudson et al, 2017).…”

“…Anger differs from frustration in its association with a high degree of certainty and attribution of other responsibility for the anger‐evoking situation. Because research has often treated frustration as a sub‐dimension of negative emotions (Antonetti et al, 2020) or as a weaker version of anger, it has overlooked a more fine‐grained analysis of the mechanisms of how frustration first arises, how it differs from related emotions like anger and its subsequent role in determining service outcomes.…”

“…Drawing on theories of emotion appraisal (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985), we join the conversation recently started by consumer emotion researchers (Antonetti et al, 2020; Azemi et al, 2020; So et al, 2015) calling for studies into the link between emotional appraisals and discrete emotions in specific decision‐analytic frames (Kemp et al, 2014; Lerner et al, 2007). This paper therefore focuses on explaining how frustration arises in customers in a customer service setting as a result of stimuli connected to central appraisals related to this emotion.…”

“…We consider five customer appraisals of goal‐blocking, uncertainty, responsibility/agency, control, and fairness associated with the discrete emotion of frustration. Appraisal theory has provided a powerful theoretical basis for studying customer emotions in general (Bagozzi et al, 1999; Nyer, 1997), and more recently in the delineation of discrete emotions, such as guilt (Antonetti & Baines, 2015), fear and anger (Antonetti et al, 2020; Su et al, 2018), or gratitude, and pride (Lastner et al, 2016). Studies have investigated the role of one, or several appraisal dimensions in customer emotions (Nyer, 1997; Ruth et al, 2002), but the few existing studies on frustration take a fragmented approach, for example, focusing on one or two appraisals only (Azemi et al, 2020; Guchait & Namasivayam, 2012; Wetzer et al, 2007).…”