Anger, Efficacy, and Message Processing: A Test of the Anger Activism Model

ABSTRACT

This study tested the anger activism model (AAM), proposing that the relationship between anger, cognitions, and behavioral intentions is moderated by the intensity of the message-induced emotional experience and efficacy beliefs. The results of a 2 (anger: high, low) × 2 (efficacy: strong, weak) independent-groups experiment (N = 140) indicated that anger intensity significantly increased systematic processing (i.e., message-relevant cognitions), and, subsequently, systematic processing along with anger and efficacy beliefs were found to motivate intentions. The effect of anger intensity on behavioral intentions was partially mediated by cognitions. Overall, the data offer partial support for the AAM. These and other results are discussed along with implications, limitations, and future research directions.

KEYWORDS:

• Anger
• anger activism model (AAM)
• efficacy
• emotion
• persuasion
• systematic processing

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any conflict of interest influencing these results.

Notes

1. Study materials are available upon request from the second author.

2. Pilot study participants came from the same research population and had a similar demographic profile as the participants in the main experiment. A research recruitment software was used to disqualify pilot-study participants from being able to participate in the main experiment.

3. To account for the scores’ weights in the reliability analysis, index reliabilities were calculated using the following equation: N/(N-1)(E-1)/E, wherein N = number of items and E = eigenvalues for principal components.

4. Given that study results might be a function of the analytic strategy employed to test study predictions, we wanted to cross-validate our findings using a different analytic approach. To this end, we performed a median split to create strong and weak efficacy groups, and then conducted curve estimation for the relationships between anger and systematic processing as well as anger and behavioral intentions. Similar to the findings reported prior, the curve-estimation results supported linear rather than curvilinear effects.