Abstract
A study is described that tested a model (Feather in Eur Rev Soc Psychol 17:38–73, 2006) relating emotions to the appraisal of outcome deservingness for self or other person. Outcome deservingness was assumed to depend on the evaluative structure of action/outcome relations (Feather in Values, achievement, and justice: studies in the psychology of deservingness. Kluwer/Plenum Publishers, New York, 1999b). The study tested predictions about relations between this structure and the emotions of pleasure, admiration, pride, resentment, anger, sadness, sympathy, guilt, regret, disappointment, and surprise. The study used a hypothetical scenario involving an applicant for a position in an organization where the applicant could either be other or self. Results that focused on planned comparisons and the action by focus interactions supported the analysis for both the positive outcome and the negative outcome conditions and they were consistent with the hypothesis that the appraisal of outcome deservingness would mediate at least in part the type of emotion that was reported when a positive or negative outcome followed a positive or negative action. Results were discussed in relation to the social psychology of justice and the emotions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, J. A. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267–299). New York: Academic Press.
Baumeister, R. F., Stillwell, A. M., & Hetherton, T. F. (1994). Guilt: An interpersonal approach. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 243–267.
Ben-Ze’ev, A. (2000). The subtlety of emotions. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Berkowitz, L. (1962). Aggression: A social psychological analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Berndsen, M., van der Pligt, J., Doosje, B., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2004). Guilt and regret: The determining role of interpersonal and intrapersonal harm. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 55–70.
Brigham, N. L., Kelso, K. A., Jackson, M. A., & Smith, R. H. (1997). The roles of invidious comparisons and deservingness in sympathy and Schadenfreude. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 363–380.
Darley, J. M., & Pittman, T. S. (2003). The psychology of compensatory and retributive justice. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 324–336.
Feather, N. T. (1963). Mowrer’s revised two-factor theory and the motive-expectancy-value model. Psychological Review, 70, 500–515.
Feather, N. T. (1994). Attitudes toward high achievers and reactions to their fall. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 26, pp. 1–73). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Feather, N. T. (1996a). Reactions to penalties for an offence in relation to authoritarianism, values, perceived responsibility, perceived seriousness, and deservingness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 571–587.
Feather, N. T. (1996b). Values, deservingness, and attitudes toward high achievers: Research on tall poppies. In C. Seligman, J. M. Olson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The psychology of values: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 8, pp. 215–251). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Feather, N. T. (1998). Reactions to offences committed by the police and public citizens: Testing a social-cognitive process model of retributive justice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 528–544.
Feather, N. T. (1999a). Judgments of deservingness: Studies in the psychology of justice and achievement. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 86–107.
Feather, N. T. (1999b). Values, achievement, and justice: Studies in the psychology of deservingness. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Feather, N. T. (2006). Deservingness and emotions: Applying the structural model of deservingness to the analysis of affective reactions to outcomes. European Review of Social Psychology, 17, 38–73.
Feather, N. T. (2008a). Effects of observer’s own status on reactions to a high achiever’s failure: Deservingness, resentment, and schadenfreude. Australian Journal of Psychology, 60, 31–43.
Feather, N. T. (2008b). Perceived legitimacy of a promotion decision in relation to deservingness, entitlement, and resentment in the context of affirmative action and performance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 1230–1254.
Feather, N. T., & McKee, I. R. (2009). Differentiating emotions in relation to deserved or undeserved outcomes: A retrospective study of real-life events. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 955–977.
Feather, N. T., & Nairn, K. (2005). Resentment, envy, schadenfreude, and sympathy: Effects of own and other’s deserved or undeserved status. Australian Journal of Psychology, 57, 87–102.
Feather, N. T., & Sherman, R. (2002). Envy, resentment, schadenfreude, and sympathy: Reactions to deserved and undeserved achievement and subsequent failure. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 953–961.
Fischer, A. H., Manstead, A. S. R., & Zaalberg, R. (2003). Social influences on the emotion process. European Review of Social Psychology, 14, 171–201.
Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316, 998–1002.
Hareli, S., & Parkinson, B. (2008). What’s social about social emotions? Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 38, 131–156.
Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley.
Krehbiel, P. J., & Cropanzano, R. (2000). Procedural justice, outcome favorability, and emotion. Social Justice Research, 13, 339–360.
Kristjánsson, K. (2006). Justice and desert-based emotions. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Leach, C. W., & Spears, R. (2008). “A vengefulness of the impotent”: the pain of in-group inferiority and schadenfreude toward successful out-groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1383–1396.
Mikula, G., Scherer, K. R., & Athenstaedt, U. (1998). The role of injustice in the elicitation of differential emotional reactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 769–783.
Montada, L. (1994). Injustice in harm and loss. Social Justice Research, 7, 5–28.
Montada, L., & Schneider, A. (1989). Justice and emotional reactions to the disadvantaged. Social Justice Research, 3, 313–344.
Ortony, A., Clore, G. L., & Collins, A. (1988). The cognitive structure of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parkinson, B., Fischer, A. H., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2005). Emotion in social relations. New York: Psychology Press.
Parkinson, B., & Manstead, A. S. R. (1993). Making sense of emotions in stories and social life. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 295–323.
Portmann, J. (2000). When bad things happen to other people. New York: Routledge.
Robinson, M. D., & Clore, G. L. (2001). Simulation, scenarios, and emotional appraisal: Testing the convergence of real and imagined reactions to emotional stimuli. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1520–1532.
Roseman, I. J. (1984). Cognitive determinants of behavior: A structural theory. In P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology: Vol 5. Emotions, relationships, and health (pp. 11–36). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Roseman, I. J. (2001). A model of appraisal in the emotion system: Integrating theory, research, and applications. In K. R. Sherer, A. Schorr, & T. Johnstone (Eds.), Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research (pp. 68–91). New York: Oxford University Press.
Roseman, I. J., Antoniou, A. A., & Jose, P. E. (1996). Appraisal determinants of emotion: Constructing a more accurate and comprehensive theory. Cognition and Emotion, 10, 241–277.
Rozin, P., Lowery, L., Imada, S., & Haidt, J. (1999). The CAD Triad Hypothesis: A mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 574–586.
Scherer, K. R. (1984). On the nature and function of emotion: A component process approach. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 293–317). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Scherer, K. R., Schorr, A., & Johnstone, T. (Eds.). (2001). Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, and research. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Shaver, P., Shwartz, J., Kirson, D., & O’Connor, C. (1987). Emotion knowledge: Further exploration of a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1061–1086.
Smith, R. H. (2000). Assimilative and constrastive emotional reactions to upward and downward social comparisons. In L. Wheeler & J. Suls (Eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 173–200). New York: Kluwer.
Smith, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (2007). Comprehending envy. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 46–64.
Smith, C. A., & Lazarus, R. S. (1993). Appraisal components, core related themes, and the emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 295–323.
Smith, R. H., Turner, T. J., Garonzik, R., Leach, C. W., Urch-Druskat, V., & Weston, C. M. (1996). Envy and Schadenfreude. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 158–168.
Tangney, J. P., & Dearing, R. L. (2002). Shame and guilt. New York: Guilford.
Tangney, J. P., & Fischer, K. W. (Eds.). (1995). Self-conscious emotions: Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. New York: Guilford Press.
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. (2007). What’s moral about the self-conscious emotions? In J. L. Tracy, R. W. Robins, & J. P. Tangney (Eds.), The self-conscious emotions: Theory and research (pp. 21–37). New York: Guilford Press.
Tracy, J. L., Robins, R. W., & Tangney, J. P. (Eds.). (2007). The self-conscious emotions: Theory and research. New York: Guilford Press.
van Dijk, W., Ouwerkerk, J., Goslinga, S., & Nieweg, M. (2005). Deservingness and schadenfreude. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 933–939.
Walster, E., Walster, G. W., & Berscheid, E. (1978). Equity: Theory and research. Boston: Allyn Bacon.
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer.
Weiner, B. (1995). Judgments of responsibility: A foundation for a theory of social conduct. New York: Guilford.
Weiner, B. (2006). Social motivation, justice, and the moral emotions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Weiss, H. M., Suckow, K., & Cropanzano, R. (1999). Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 786–794.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This study was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Feather, N.T., McKee, I.R. & Bekker, N. Deservingness and emotions: Testing a structural model that relates discrete emotions to the perceived deservingness of positive or negative outcomes. Motiv Emot 35, 1–13 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9202-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9202-4