Outrage (emotion)

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The effect of public outrage over the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Sarajevo Outrage after the Assassination2.jpg
The effect of public outrage over the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Outrage is a strong moral emotion characterized by a combination of surprise, disgust, [1] and anger, [2] usually in reaction to a grave personal offense. [3] It comes from old French "ultrage", which in turn borrows from classical Latin "ultra", meaning "beyond". [4]

Contents

Moral outrage is the emotion of outrage experienced in reaction to an injustice, as such involving a moral judgement, and is often accompanied by a desire to shame and/or punish wrongdoers. [5]

Faux outrage

The 21st century and its social media have seen an increased display of false or manufactured outrage, with power and prestige being hypocritically sought by professing concern for others, in a highly selective and temporary manner. [6] In The Sociology of Everyday Life Peacebuilding, John D. Brewer, et al., observed: [6]

'Canonized' and 'preferred victims' generate considerable outrage when their memory is besmirched but the same politicians and spokespeople who express this outrage are content enough to besmirch the memory of dis-preferred victims. In contested peace processes, there are many people who are eager to offend and many only too willing to be offended, and victims easily get used by others to provoke faux outrage. And as public insult and degradation descend to the bottom in competitive faux outrage in the public sphere, victims find themselves used for party political purposes, voiceless and ignored save when it suits those who exploit their suffering and pain.

The authors, whose work focuses primarily on post-conflict peace and resolution, propose a paradox: Individual "preferred victims" lack much if any agency to control how perception of them is manipulated in the public sphere, and can thus feel "owned" by this process and those who are deeply involved in it. Yet, as a social class, they collectively may be surrounded by considerable socio-political power, which is wielded by self-appointed spokespeople and "allies" who do not always have the best interests of the victim class at heart, and may even be competing with each other at cross-purposes, for dominance within the political sphere of issues surrounding that class, and at the class's expense. [6]

Historical and sociological examples

Literary examples

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bourgeoisie</span> Wealthy stratum of the middle class that originated during the latter part of the Middle Ages

The bourgeoisie is a sociologically defined social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They are sometimes divided into a petty (petite), middle (moyenne), large (grande), upper (haute), and ancient (ancienne) bourgeoisie and collectively designated as "the bourgeoisie".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anger</span> Intense hostile emotional state of mind

Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat.

Appeal to emotion or argumentum ad passiones is an informal fallacy characterized by the manipulation of the recipient's emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence. This kind of appeal to emotion is a type of red herring and encompasses several logical fallacies, including appeal to consequences, appeal to fear, appeal to flattery, appeal to pity, appeal to ridicule, appeal to spite, and wishful thinking.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a 1759 book by Adam Smith. It provided the ethical, philosophical, economic, and methodological underpinnings to Smith's later works, including The Wealth of Nations (1776), Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1795), and Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms (1763).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contempt</span> Disgust and anger towards something or someone

Contempt is a pattern of attitudes and behaviour, often towards an individual or a group, but sometimes towards an ideology, which has the characteristics of disgust and anger.

Shock value is the potential of an image, text, action, or other form of communication, such as a public execution, to provoke a reaction of sharp disgust, shock, anger, fear, or similar negative emotions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Resentment</span> Complex, multilayered emotion aka bitterness

Resentment is a complex, multilayered emotion that has been described as a mixture of disappointment, disgust, anger, and fear. Other psychologists consider it a mood or as a secondary emotion that can be elicited in the face of insult and/or injury.

Righteous indignation is typically a reactive emotion of anger over perceived mistreatment, insult, or malice of another. It is akin to what is called the sense of injustice. In some Christian doctrines, righteous anger is considered the only form of anger which is not sinful, e.g., when Jesus drove the money lenders out of the temple.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the human self:

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Jonathan Haidt American social psychologist

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Microaggression is a term used for commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups. The term was coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied to the casual degradation of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT people, people living in poverty, and people who are disabled. Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership". The persons making the comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatred</span> Deep and emotional extreme dislike

Hatred is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hatred is sometimes seen as the opposite of love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disgust</span> Basic emotion

Disgust is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant. In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin wrote that disgust is a sensation that refers to something revolting. Disgust is experienced primarily in relation to the sense of taste, and secondarily to anything which causes a similar feeling by sense of smell, touch, or vision. Musically sensitive people may even be disgusted by the cacophony of inharmonious sounds. Research continually has proven a relationship between disgust and anxiety disorders such as arachnophobia, blood-injection-injury type phobias, and contamination fear related obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Manipulation (psychology) is behavior designed to exploit, control, or otherwise influence others to one’s advantage. Definitions for the term vary in which behavior is specifically included, influenced by both culture and whether referring to the general population or used in clinical contexts. Manipulation is generally considered a dishonest form of social influence as it is used at the expense of the others.

Outrage Style is any type of media or narrative that is designed to use outrage to provoke strong emotional reactions for the purpose of expanding audiences, whether traditional television, radio, or print media, or in social media with increased web traffic and online attention. The term outrage porn was coined in 2009 by political cartoonist and essayist Tim Kreider of The New York Times.

Moral emotions are a variety of social emotion that are involved in forming and communicating moral judgments and decisions, and in motivating behavioral responses to one's own and others' moral behavior.

References

  1. "The Interactive Effect of Anger and Disgust on Moral Outrage and Judgments".
  2. "Robert Plutchik's Psychoevolutionary Theory of Basic Emotions" (PDF). Adliterate.com. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
  3. "Outrage – Definition of Outrage by Merriam-Webster".
  4. "outrage: definition of outrage in Oxford dictionary (American English)". Archived from the original on May 19, 2013.
  5. Crockett, M. J. (18 September 2017). "Moral outrage in the digital age". Nature Human Behaviour. 1 (11): 769–771. doi:10.1038/s41562-017-0213-3. PMID   31024117. S2CID   27074328.
  6. 1 2 3 Brewer, John D.; Hayes, Bernadette C.; Teeney, Francis; Dudgeon, Katrin; Mueller-Hirth, Natascha; Wijesinghe, Shirley Lal (2018). "Centring Victims in Peacebuilding". Sociology of Everyday Life Peacemaking. "Studies in Compromise After Conflict" series. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 38–40. ISBN   9783319789750 . Retrieved 10 February 2020 via Google Books.
  7. Quoted in G Austen, George Gascoigne (Cambridge 2008) p. 187 and p. 194
  8. K Fox Watching the English (Hodder 2004) p. 382
  9. K Fox Watching the English (Hodder 2004) p. 300
  10. Aeschylus, The Oresteia' (Penguin 1981) p. 219