On Being Angry and Punitive

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that anger increases the tendency to blame and punish others for harmful behaviors. This study investigated whether such attributions extend to judgments of criminal intent, and it examined the mechanisms by which anger influences punitiveness. In an experiment, angry, sad, and neutral participants read about an ambiguously criminal behavior. As hypothesized, angry participants judged the behavior as being more intentional and the perpetrator as having more causal control than did neutral participants, and they were more willing to punish the wrongdoer. Sadness did not have a demonstrable effect on judgments, indicating a specific role of anger rather than a general negative affect. Moreover, the effect of anger on punitiveness was mediated by perceived criminal intent but not by perceived causal control. Implications for legal judgments and theories of blame attribution are discussed.