TY  - JOUR
A1  - Abendroth, Johanna
A1  - Nauroth, Peter
A1  - Richter, Tobias
A1  - Gollwitzer, Mario
T1  - Non-strategic detection of identity-threatening information: Epistemic validation and identity defense may share a common cognitive basis
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Readers use prior knowledge to evaluate the validity of statements and detect false information without effort and strategic control. The present study expands this research by exploring whether people also non-strategically detect information that threatens their social identity. Participants (N = 77) completed a task in which they had to respond to a “True” or “False” probe after reading true, false, identity-threatening, or non-threatening sentences. Replicating previous studies, participants reacted more slowly to a positive probe (“True”) after reading false (vs. true) sentences. Notably, participants also reacted more slowly to a positive probe after reading identity-threatening (vs. non-threatening) sentences. These results provide first evidence that identity-threatening information, just as false information, is detected at a very early stage of information processing and lends support to the notion of a routine, non-strategic identity-defense mechanism.
KW  - social identity
KW  - cognitive basis
KW  - identity defense
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-301019
VL  - 17
IS  - 1
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Eder, Andreas B.
A1  - Mitschke, Vanessa
A1  - Gollwitzer, Mario
T1  - What stops revenge taking? Effects of observed emotional reactions on revenge seeking
JF  - Aggressive Behavior
N2  - What reaction stops revenge taking? Four experiments (total N = 191) examined this question where the victim of an interpersonal transgression could observe the offender's reaction (anger, sadness, pain, or calm) to a retributive noise punishment. We compared the punishment intensity selected by the participant before and after seeing the offender's reaction. Seeing the opponent in pain reduced subsequent punishment most strongly, while displays of sadness and verbal indications of suffering had no appeasing effect. Expression of anger about a retributive punishment did not increase revenge seeking relative to a calm reaction, even when the anger response was disambiguated as being angry with the punisher. It is concluded that the expression of pain is the most effective emotional display for the reduction of retaliatory aggression. The findings are discussed in light of recent research on reactive aggression and retributive justice.
KW  - aggression
KW  - emotion display
KW  - retaliation
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-214686
VL  - 46
IS  - 4
SP  - 305
EP  - 316
ER  -