How emotion communication guides reciprocity: Establishing cooperation through disappointment and anger

Negative emotions in informal feedback: The benefits of disappointment and drawbacks of anger

“…As a result, people may deliberately express disappointment to change the behavior of others in desired ways (Lelieveld et al, 2011;Wubben et al, 2009). Since behavior modification via communication of needed improvements is the goal of feedback, disappointment may be especially salient in this context.…”

The communication of anger and disappointment helps to establish cooperation through indirect reciprocity

“…Accordingly, people inferred that a defector had a more positive initial reputation when disappointment as opposed to anger was communicated. The previous findings that people who express disappointment instead of anger are perceived to be more prosocially motivated and forgiving rather than retaliatory (Wubben et al, 2009) also follow from the idea that disappointed people still envision their interaction partner as relatively valuable, reputable and worthy of future cooperation.…”

“…Consequently, feeling disappointed in someone else should communicate that this person has not lived up to your high expectations or, put differently, to his or her positive reputation (cf. Lelieveld et al, 2011;Timmers, Fischer, & Manstead, 1998;Van Kleef & Van Lange, 2008;Van Kleef et al, 2006;Wubben et al, 2009). Disappointment should therefore also signal to others that a person with a positive initial reputation has committed a transgression such as unjustified defection.…”

“…Disappointment is an emotional reaction to unfulfilled positive expectations (Van Dijk & Van Harreveld, 2008), such as the other person's decision to defect instead of cooperate. Though less studied in situations characterized by both conflict and mutual dependence (i.e., mixed-motive situations, Schelling, 1960), disappointment appears to address defection at least as effectively as anger does (Lelieveld, Van Dijk, Van Beest, Steinel, & Van Kleef, 2011;Van Kleef, De Dreu, & Manstead, 2006;Van Kleef & Van Lange, 2008;Wubben, De Cremer, & Van Dijk, 2009). Both anger and disappointment, then, signal that dissatisfaction with a recipient's defection is the antecedent of one's own defection, which third parties will therefore be likely to interpret as a justified response to which they will respond cooperatively.…”

Deriving meaning from others’ emotions: attribution, appraisal, and the use of emotions as social information

“…People may use expressions of emotion to infer the cooperativeness (Van Doorn et al, 2012) and level of risk (e.g., Sorce et al, 1985; Parkinson and Simons, 2009; Parkinson et al, 2012) of the situation in which the expression takes place. Other inferences may include whether the target of the expression performed sufficiently well on a task (Weiner et al, 1979, 1982; Van Doorn et al, 2014).…”