Why Seemingly Trivial Events Sometimes Evoke Strong Emotional Reactions: The Role of Social Exchange Rule Violations

People sometimes display strong emotional reactions to events that appear disproportionate to the tangible magnitude of the event. Although previous work has addressed the role that perceived disrespect and unfairness have on such reactions, this study examined the role of perceived social exchange rule violations more broadly. 

Participants (N = 179) rated the effects of another person’s behavior on important personal outcomes, the degree to which the other person had violated fundamental rules of social exchange, and their reactions to the event. Results showed that perceptions of social exchange rule violations accounted for more variance in participants’ reactions than the tangible consequences of the event. 

The findings support the hypothesis that responses that appear disproportionate to the seriousness of the eliciting event are often fueled by perceived rule violations that may not be obvious to others.

...In many instances, people are motivated, at minimum, to send an unambiguous signal that they are aware of the violations and will not tolerate such actions in the future. Cohen et al. (1996) described this deterrence function of strong reactions to signs of disrespect, but the effect applies to a broad array of situations in which actual or potential exchange partners violate the rules that guide mutually beneficial social exchanges. From this perspective, expressions of anger, including overt aggression, in these instances may be efforts to show that one will not tolerate social exchange rule violations (Felson, 1982; Miller, 2001; Toch, 1992).

In addition, when violations of social exchange rules are particularly egregious, people may be motivated to punish the perpetrator. Most work on retributive justice has focused on how people respond to those who commit immoral actions that harm themselves or other people (Carlsmith & Darley, 2008), but people sometimes engage in retribution for behaviors, that, in themselves, did not hurt anyone (Felson, 1978). The psychological heuristic underlying such reactions seems to be that people who cannot be trusted to be good social exchange partners should be put on notice, if not punished....

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/73ltZG

By:   Mark R. Leary, a , * Kate J. Diebels, a Katrina P. Jongman-Sereno, a and Xuan Duong Fernandez a

^aDuke University

Address correspondence to Mark R. Leary, Duke University, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, P.O. Box 90085, Durham, NC27708, USA. E-mail: ude.ekud@yrael

 

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