Anger deters aggression and seeks bargaining power rather than fairness.
Evidence
Similarly, anger (discussed by Cova et al.) – as opposed to outrage – may contradict morality. This is the case, for instance, when people are angry at infants for crying too much or at animals for being dirty. Anger is an ancient psychological mechanism, present in many nonhuman species (Clutton-Brock & Parker 1995), that does not aim at being fair but, mainly, at deterring future aggressions (McCullough et al. 2010) and at using physical force to coerce or to obtain a better bargaining position (Sell et al. 2009). — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 661
Categorization
- DEFINE: Separates anger (ancient, coercive, non-moral) from outrage (moralized), a useful conceptual distinction.
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s framework on how moral emotions are engineered in high-stakes environments. — connects to: Moral emotions are dominated by punitive anger, not avoidance — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 346; Deriving fairness from bargaining power threatens to reduce moral norms to mere bargaining. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 623; Mutualistic anthropology explains moral anger as an evolved fairness-restoring mechanism — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 354 (+3 more)
Related
- Mutualistic anthropology explains moral anger as an evolved fairness-restoring mechanism (similarity 0.83)
- Moral emotions are dominated by punitive anger, not avoidance (similarity 0.82)
- Anger at being cheated was necessary for fairness to become intrinsically valued (similarity 0.81)
- Moral anger tracks the offender’s intentions, not just the harm done (similarity 0.80)
- Fairness regulates rather than generates the moralized expression of evolved dispositions (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Deriving fairness from bargaining power threatens to reduce moral norms to mere bargaining.
#complicates(0.80) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 623 - Mutualistic anthropology explains moral anger as an evolved fairness-restoring mechanism
#contradicts(0.80) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 354 - Fairness distributions reflect bargaining power, not just effort.
#corroborates(0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 443 - Conflict situations are essentially bargaining situations
#expands(0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 21