The Role of Intuitive Anger in Public Punitiveness: An Investigation Into the Influence of Anger on People’s Reactions to Crime

Anger is a fundamental human emotion characterized by opposition, impatience, and dissatisfaction. It is usually triggered during particular events and could result in a variety of physiological and behavioral reactions (DeCelles et al., 2020). This study focused on the role of anger in people’s reactions to crime. Specifically, it investigated intuitive anger, a quick and automatic negative emotional response that opposes principles of punishment but still contributes to punitiveness. To explore the influence of intuitive anger on the tendency to impose punishment or penalties on others, this study used facial electromyography (fEMG) and collected data from students at McGill University in Canada (N= 40). The present study’s repeated-measures experimental design would enable testing of the hypothesis that when making punitive decisions for alleged «stereotypical criminals,» individuals will exhibit greater responses of intuitive anger. It was anticipated that the display of images depicting stereotypical criminals would result in a substantial rise in instinctive anger response compared to images of atypical criminals. This is because the former are often perceived as lacking warmth (meaning, a lack of friendliness, kindness, and approachability) (Fiske et al., 2002). Therefore, this approach suggests potential variations in emotional responses based on the type of image presented.