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    Does it really hurt? Making sense of varieties of anger

    Antonetti, P. and Crisafulli, Benedetta and Katsikeas, C. (2020) Does it really hurt? Making sense of varieties of anger. Psychology & Marketing 37 (11), pp. 1465-1483. ISSN 0742-6046.

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    Abstract

    While research has shown that consumer anger causes a range of negative consequences, the conceptualization and measurement of this emotion remain inconsistent. Some studies link anger to consumer revenge motivated by a desire to hurt the company, while others associate anger with a desire to cooperate with the company. This inconsistency is caused by the fact that anger is a broad label used to refer to almost any brand failure. We argue that, rather than considering anger as a single construct, scholars should distinguish between a supportive facet of anger, which comprises feelings of annoyance, frustration and other mild negative feelings, and a vindictive facet of anger, which comprises feelings of intense anger, rage and outrage. These two facets of anger reconcile divergent arguments presented in past research. Research benefits from moving beyond the generic label of anger to consider supportive and vindictive facets of anger that influence consumers’ reactions under different circumstances. Only vindictive anger prompts consumers to take revenge and punish the company for unfair treatment. Supportive anger triggers instead a desire to solve the problem by cooperating with the company. This study presents important managerial implications for assessing and managing feelings of anger following brand failures.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at the link above. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): supportive anger, vindictive anger, problem-solving complaining, vindictive complaining, anger, frustration, rage.
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School
    Depositing User: Benedetta Crisafulli
    Date Deposited: 04 Aug 2020 12:33
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 18:01
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/32575

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