Expectations of cooperation and competition and their effects on observers' vicarious emotional responses.

Lanzetta, John T.; Englis, Basil G.

doi:10.1037/0022-3514.56.4.543

Cited by 315 publications

(226 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Nevertheless, the results were quite similar. Responses to others' successes may be either positive or negative and this valence is As already mentioned, there is a substantial amount of literature on the role of attitudes in the formation of empathic responses (e.g., Lanzetta & Englis, 1989). Hareli and Weiner (2002) found a relation between the intensity of negative emotions toward the other and schadenfreude.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it has received some initial support in a substantial number of previous studies showing the important role of pre-existing attitudes in shaping emotional reactions to the plight of others. For example, it is well-documented that positive and negative attitudes toward others strongly moderate empathic responses (Lanzetta & Englis, 1989;Vaughn & Lanzetta, 1980). Our work expands this approach.…”

Section: Balancing Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Joy, Schadenfreude, Sorrow, and Resentment as Responses Restoring Balance in Cognitive Units

Pietraszkiewicz

Wojciszke

2014

Social Psychology

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Based on Heider's (1958) balance theory we hypothesize that emotional responses to other persons' outcomes depend on attitudes towards these persons. Positive attitudes towards others lead to empathic responses to their outcomes-joy after a success and sorrow after a failure. Negative attitudes result in paradoxical responses -negative to a success (resentment) and positive to a failure (schadenfreude). These emotions function as responses restoring balance within cognitive units consisting of the perceiver, other persons and their outcomes. Three studies supported these hypotheses and showed that deservingness considerations play a weaker role in shaping emotional responses of joy and sorrow to others' outcomes when strong interpersonal attitudes are involved. However, deservingness plays an independent role in shaping the emotional response of resentment. Cognitive UnitsHumans are ultra-social beings. Whatever we do, we do it together with other people and so our thoughts and actions are deeply social in nature. The same is true of emotions, which in a broad sense are all social, though some of them are also social in a narrower sense as responses to other people and their outcomes. The present work is devoted to others' successes and failures as antecedents of global and specific affective responses.Basing on Heider (1958), we develop a balancing model of emotional responses to others' successes and failures and we review the deservingness model which is now the dominating account for these responses. We present two studies aimed at testing the balancing model and resolving discrepancies between the balancing and deservingness accounts of emotional responses to others' outcomes. Responses to Successes of Others: Joy and ResentmentIn individualistic societies, self-centered values are important (Oyserman & Lee, 2008) and people strive for successes in a variety of domains. Own success gives pleasure and a boost in self-esteem. Others' successes also lead to joy and pride, especially when the perceivers do not strive to enhance their own results. This way, others' successes are void of threat and enable increases in the perceivers' self-esteem due to basking in reflected glory (Tesser, 1988). However, they may also lead to resentment and envy. Envy is "an unpleasant, often painful emotion characterized by feelings of inferiority, hostility, and resentment caused by an awareness of a desired attribute enjoyed by another person or group" (Smith & Kim, 2007, p. 46). Resentment is a bitter feeling following successes of others who are perceived as not deserving their lot (Feather & Sherman, 2002). Both emotions are usually correlated and emerge in similar conditions of others' successes. In our reading, resentment and schadenfreude are emotional responses to different situations -others' successes or failures respectively. A stable link between the two emotions cannot be predicted unless they involve a psychological similarity, for example, the perceived others are disliked by the perceiver. Deservingness ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Balancing Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Joy, Schadenfreude, Sorrow, and Resentment as Responses Restoring Balance in Cognitive Units

Pietraszkiewicz

Wojciszke

2014

Social Psychology

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“…In one of the early studies, Lanzetta et al (1989) showed that vicarious fear and distress was markedly lower when the other in pain was disliked 49 . It may be expected that individual difference variables may also account for the variability 40 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative Emotional Responses Elicited by the Anticipation of Pain in Others: Psychophysiological Evidence

Caes

Uzieblo

Crombez

et al. 2012

The Journal of Pain

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Limited evidence is available about factors influencing observers' anticipatory emotional responses to another's pain. We investigated fear and distress towards the threat of pain in others, and the moderating role of observers' psychopathic traits and catastrophizing about own or other's pain. Thirty-six dyads of healthy participants were randomly assigned to either the role of observer or observed participant. Both participants were instructed that one coloured slide (blue or yellow) signalled that a pain stimulus could possibly be delivered to the observed participant (= pain signal), whereas no pain stimulus would be delivered when a differently coloured slide was presented (= safety signal). Observers' self-reported fear, fearpotentiated startle and corrugator EMG activity during pain and safety signals were measured. Furthermore, observers rated the presence of pain after each trial allowing assessment of observers' perceptual sensitivity to other's pain. Results indicated that selfreported fear, fear-potentiated startle and corrugator EMG activity were augmented during pain signals compared to safety signals. Moreover, these negative emotional responses were heightened in observers highly catastrophizing about other's pain, but reduced in observers with heightened psychopathic traits. Psychopathic traits were also related with a diminished perceptual sensitivity to other's pain. The results are discussed in light of affectivemotivational perspectives on pain.

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“…"), a low evaluation of an individual on a trait that is relevant to the calibration of WTRs such as intelligence or physical formidability in men (Harris, 1993;Preston & Kimberley, 1987), and a lack of empathic feelings, i.e. being uninterested in a person's pain or joy (Lanzetta & Englis, 1989). That said, the most common trigger of anger is a cost imposition (Averill, 1982(Averill, , 1983).…”

Section: Triggers Of Angermentioning

confidence: 99%

The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion

et al. 2017

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a b s t r a c tAccording to the recalibrational theory of anger, anger is a computationally complex cognitive system that evolved to bargain for better treatment. Anger coordinates facial expressions, vocal changes, verbal arguments, the withholding of benefits, the deployment of aggression, and a suite of other cognitive and physiological variables in the service of leveraging bargaining position into better outcomes. The prototypical trigger of anger is an indication that the offender places too little weight on the angry individual's welfare when making decisions, i.e. the offender has too low a welfare tradeoff ratio (WTR) toward the angry individual. Twenty-three experiments in six cultures, including a group of foragers in the Ecuadorian Amazon, tested six predictions about the computational structure of anger derived from the recalibrational theory. Subjects judged that anger would intensify when: (i) the cost was large, (ii) the benefit the offender received from imposing the cost was small, or (iii) the offender imposed the cost despite knowing that the angered individual was the person to be harmed. Additionally, anger-based arguments conformed to a conceptual grammar of anger, such that offenders were inclined to argue that they held a high WTR toward the victim, e.g., ''the cost I imposed on you was small", ''the benefit I gained was large", or ''I didn't know it was you I was harming." These results replicated across all six tested cultures: the US, Australia, Turkey, Romania, India, and Shuar hunter-horticulturalists in Ecuador. Results contradict key predictions about anger based on equity theory and social constructivism.

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Expectations of cooperation and competition and their effects on observers' vicarious emotional responses.

Abstract: The authors express their appreciation to Harry Reis and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. They also gratefully acknowledge Michael Danko's assistance in collecting the data presented here.

Cited by 315 publications

References 57 publications

Joy, Schadenfreude, Sorrow, and Resentment as Responses Restoring Balance in Cognitive Units

Joy, Schadenfreude, Sorrow, and Resentment as Responses Restoring Balance in Cognitive Units

Negative Emotional Responses Elicited by the Anticipation of Pain in Others: Psychophysiological Evidence

The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion

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