Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, Vol 56(2), Apr 2024, 113-121; doi:10.1037/cbs0000344
This exploratory research experimentally investigated whether following an illegitimate defeat, emotions demonstrated by outgroup fans (expressive/inexpressive) could affect individual anger and then prompt greater prosocial behaviour (i.e., intergroup help). More specifically, it was postulated that expressive/inexpressive outgroup emotion would first increase/decrease individual anger following an illegitimate defeat and that anger would explain the variability of helping behaviours. Using a virtual reality environment, fans viewed a game between two French soccer teams. Thirty-four participants were randomly assigned to the outgroup expressive or inexpressive conditions and were faced with an emergency situation involving an outgroup fan. Results confirmed that anger was lower in the inexpressive condition compared to the expressive condition and that anger mediated the outgroup emotion expression-intentional helping behaviour relationship. This finding indicates that inhibiting the outward expression of positive emotion has the potential to positively influence intergroup experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)