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  • August 2021
  • Article
  • Psychological Science

Anger Damns the Innocent

By: Katherine DeCelles, Gabrielle Adams, Holly S. Howe and Leslie K. John
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Abstract

False accusations of wrongdoing are common and can have grave consequences. In six studies, we document a worrisome paradox in perceivers’ subjective judgments of a suspect’s guilt. Specifically, we find that laypeople (online panelists; N = 4,983) use suspects’ angry responses to accusations as cues of guilt. However, we find that such anger is an invalid cue of guilt and is instead a valid cue of innocence; accused individuals university students (N = 230) and online panelists (N = 401) are angrier when they are falsely versus accurately accused. This pattern holds even among professionals (N = 136)—sophisticated perceivers with considerable practical influence. Moreover, we find that those who remain silent are perceived to be at least as guilty as those who angrily deny the accusation.

Keywords

Morality; Accusations; Deception; Guilt; Affect; Emotions; Behavior; Perception; Judgments; Decision Making

Citation

DeCelles, Katherine, Gabrielle Adams, Holly S. Howe, and Leslie K. John. "Anger Damns the Innocent." Psychological Science 32, no. 8 (August 2021): 1214–1226.
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About The Author

Leslie K. John

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Authors
  • A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Nudges Delivered through Text Messages to Increase Influenza Vaccination among Patients with an Upcoming Primary Care Visit By: Mitesh S. Patel, Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Modupe Akinola, John Beshears, Jonathan E. Bogard, Alison Buttenheim, Christopher Chabris, Gretchen B. Chapman, James J. Choi, Hengchen Dai, Craig R. Fox, Amir Goren, Matthew D. Hilchey, Jillian Hmurovic, Leslie John, Dean Karlan, Melanie Kim, David Laibson, Cait Lamberton, Brigitte C. Madrian, Michelle N. Meyer, Maria Modanu, Jimin Nam, Todd Rogers, Renante Rondina, Silvia Saccardo, Maheen Shermohammed, Dilip Soman, Jehan Sparks, Caleb Warren, Megan Weber, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Seung Hyeong Lee, Christopher K. Snider, Eli Tsukayama, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp and Angela L. Duckworth
  • Calculators for Women: When Identity-Based Appeals Backfire By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz, Michael I. Norton and Leslie K. John
  • Fostering Perceptions of Authenticity via Sensitive Self-Disclosure By: Li Jiang, Leslie K. John, Reihane Boghrati and Maryam Kouchaki
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