Compassionate Anger: Expressing Anger Out of Care Following Collective Loss Strengthens Trust

Abstract: Anger expression is a double-edged sword in interpersonal interactions: while it can assert valued goals and influence others, it also undermines trust and damages relationships. Yet, conclusions about the negative effects of anger on trust tends to overlook the complex motivational drivers underlying anger – the violation of both self-interested and other-interested goals (e.g., witnessing the suffering of others). Incorporating this view into the current literature, we propose that anger expression in collaborative contexts can convey both competitive and cooperative intent, and introduce the concept of compassionate anger (i.e., anger arising from the violation of goals central to the wellbeing of one’s interaction partner) to show that it can preserve trust while conveying assertive intent. Integrating Emotions as Social Information Theory with Costly Signalling Theory, we hypothesize that compassionate anger triggers inferential processing in targets without eliciting negative affective reactions, thereby increasing the target’s trust in the anger expressor via perceived willingness to invest in the relationship. In an online vignette experiment (Study 1) manipulating anger expression and justifications, findings support the proposed theoretical model. Study 2 replicated the findings in an online behavioral experiment involving a collaborative task and a trust game.

Keywords: Anger expression, trust