Abstract
Previous studies have shown that anger rumination plays a critical role in increasing anger. The present study examined whether these effects were different with respect to different foci of anger. In Study 1, 96 participants were asked to ruminate about their shame‐related or shame‐unrelated anger experiences either in an analytical or an experiential way after recalling an autobiographical anger memory. In Study 2, either shame‐related or shame‐unrelated anger was evoked in participants (n = 176) by an accomplice, and then the participants were instructed to ruminate in one of the following ways: self‐distanced analytical, self‐distanced experiential, self‐immersed analytical, and self‐immersed experiential rumination. Study 1 showed significant interaction effects between the foci of anger and the mode of processing. Study 2 showed significant three‐way interaction effects among the foci of anger, the mode of processing and the vantage perspective of rumination. Specifically, the results indicated that self‐immersed analytical rumination was more useful than the other types of rumination in reducing shame‐unrelated anger, while no difference was found regarding shame‐related anger. These findings indicated that the effects of anger rumination are different regarding the foci of anger.