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Anger and Rank in Tonga and Germany: Cognition, Emotion, and Context
Author(s) -
Bender Andrea,
Spada Hans,
Seitz Stefan,
Swoboda Hannah,
Traber Simone
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1525/eth.2007.35.2.196
Subject(s) - anger , feeling , psychology , social psychology , context (archaeology) , cognition , cognitive appraisal , rank (graph theory) , appraisal theory , geography , mathematics , archaeology , combinatorics , neuroscience
People in Tonga generally display less anger than inhabitants of "Western" countries. This emerges partly from the fact that in Tongan culture, socially disruptive feelings are evaluated negatively. To examine whether anger is also less frequently elicited in Tonga and, if so, which factors mediate such a difference, our interdisciplinary project combines anthropological fieldwork with a psychological survey using questionnaires. Following appraisal theories of emotion, we assume that similar evaluations of an event will result in similar emotions, whereas the evaluation itself will depend on culturally defined concepts, experiences, and values. After establishing a conceptual foundation for comparison, we systematically analyze the elicitation of anger. Results support most appraisal theoretic predictions but also indicate a stronger influence of social relations on anger in Tonga than in Germany. This influence can be traced back to the values and norms attached to stratification in Tonga.