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When we feel ostracised, weโre more likely to behave aggressively. Previous research suggests that vengeance on those who we think have wronged us can be driven by a sense of justice, and may activate neural reward centres. But being ostracised can also lead to generalised aggression, even lashing out at unrelated people, so there seems to be more going on. In new research in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, David Chester and C. Nathan DeWall tested the idea that social rejection, by making us feel wounded and unwanted, triggers a need to repair our mood by whatever means available, including through the satisfaction of causing harm to those who have made us suffer. They found that aggression can indeed be a viable method of moodย repair.
The researchers asked 156 participants to write an essay on a personal topic, then to swap their essays with other participants to receive feedback on what theyโd written. One group of participants received nasty feedback (actually composed by the researchers): โone of the worst essays I have EVER readโ. Chester and DeWall measured mood before and after participants were given the chance to express a symbolic form of aggression: sticking pins in a virtual voodoo doll imagined as the person who had given them mean feedback. This act of (un)sympathetic magic did indeed repair mood for the rejected participants, to the point where their mood was indistinguishable from participants whoโd received niceย feedback.
But just because revenge can boost our mood doesnโt mean that we behave aggressively because weโre seeking that better mood. To investigate motives, the researchers next invited 154 participants to the lab and gave each a pill, telling them it would enhance their thinking for the tests to come. Some of the participants were further told that the pill had a peculiar side-effect: once it kicked in, their mood would become fixed and unchanging (all these claims about the pill were a fiction, it was an inertย placebo).
Next, all the participants took part in a computer-based game where they and two other players passed a ball back and forth. Those in the โRejection conditionโ experienced a cold shoulder from their two playmates (actually pre-programmed computer responses), receiving only three of the 30 passes, compared to an equal share of passes in the โAcceptedย conditionโ.
After the game, participants rated how rejected they felt, then they had the chance to take revenge in a second game against one of their previous playmates. The game was a simple โfirst to the buzzerโ reaction race, but each round the slower player was always punished by a blast of noise through their headphones. When participants were faster, they could adjust the intensity of the noise suffered by their opponent, up to 105 decibels: the volume of a jackhammer or a helicopter hovering at 100ย feet.
Most of the time, participants whoโd suffered earlier rejection chose to inflict louder sound blasts on their opponent (whoโd rejected them earlier). But this wasnโt true of the participants whoโd earlier been told that the pill had the side-effect of fixing their mood. In the break between games, these participants were alerted that the drug was by now fully active and their mood would stay as it was for an hour. These participants restricted their sound blasts to the lower levels administered by participants who hadnโt suffered earlier rejection. It wasnโt that the โfixed moodโ participants were unaffected by their snubbing: their ratings of rejection were just as high as the other rejected participants. But thanks to the pill, they presumably believed they had no prospect of improving mood, so there would be no point in lashingย out.
The results suggest that even seemingly pointless aggression can have a purpose and deliver a desired outcome. Although this research focused on rejection-inspired aggression, it could explain other situations where aggression appears to us to be a plausible route to alleviating our bad mood. Chester and DeWall speculated that โto obtain the positive affect associated with retaliatory aggression, individuals may actively seek out provocation in their daily livesโ and they suggested that we consider better alternatives: reflection, meditation and the like. The relief that anger provides is a wretched consolation, and itโs a habit worthย kicking.
References: Chester, D. S., & DeWall, C. N. (2016). Combating the Sting of Rejection With the Pleasure of Revenge: A New Look at How Emotion Shapes Aggression. Journal of Personalty and Socialย Psychology.