Emotions and political aggression 1 Intergroup emotions and political aggression : The ANCODI hypothesis

This paper examines the role of anger, contempt, and disgust in intergroup political aggression through what we have called the ANCODI hypothesis (Matsumoto, Hwang, & Frank, 2012, 2013). The ANCODI hypothesis argues that anger, contempt and disgust are a volatile emotional mix that contributes to intergroup aggression and violence through the ability of anger to motivate, of contempt to devalue others, and disgust to eliminate. We tested this by examining the emotional content of the words and nonverbal actions in the speeches given by leaders of political groups prior to events that turned violent (e.g., Hitler and Kristallnacht in 1938) and events that did not turn violent (e.g., Gandhi and the ‘salt march’ in 1930). We found that the content of anger, contempt, and disgust in their speeches in reference to their opponent outgroups elevated prior to political events that broke violent. In contrast, only the content of anger in their speeches in reference to opponent outgroups elevated prior to the political events that did not break violent. Although these studies are correlational, our recent laboratory work has attempted to establish a causal link at the individual level of violence and find support for the ANCODI hypothesis. Taken together, this volatile mix seems an essential part of intergroup violence and may help account for the ‘dehumanization’ process usually present with political violence. Paper prepared for The 17th Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology, Volume 17 March 17-20,