Abstract

Anger is one of the most often experienced emotions, it is therefore important to understand how this emotion influences the process of judgment and decision making. The effect of anger can be analyzed on two levels. One is the question of how the anger an individual is experiencing influences her judgments and behaviours. Another thing is how anger being experienced by other people influences the behaviour of an individual. Research shows that a feeling of anger leads to more optimistic judgments, both of future and past events. When there is a conflict of interests, angry people take on a more competitive attitude and show little consideration for the interests of others. Anger also leads to worse understanding of one's self-interests and results in obtaining worse outcomes in negotiations, but paradoxically, it also brings about greater satisfaction from the outcome obtained. Additionally, a stronger sense of control over outcomes leads to holding the other party responsible for behaviours harmful to others and to being harsher when punishing such behaviours. Research on expressing anger in a situation of conflict shows that anger is interpreted as a sign of toughness and high aspirations. This allows for larger concessions in situations when the other party is in a weak position and/or is determined to reach an agreement. However, when the other party is in a strong position and/or can take severe retaliatory actions, expressing anger can be harmful to the angry person. In such situations the irate person tends to be cheated more often than a calm individual, if the other party can resort to such behaviours. Angry people are also less likely to join a coalition, but when they succeed, they can achieve considerable gains.

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