Anger and Aggression: What People Want to Feel Matters

Anger has long been of chief interest in theories of aggression, and existing empirical evidence shows that individual differences in trait anger – the dispositional tendency to experience anger more frequently and intensely – are positively related to aggressive behavior, with stronger effect sizes for reactive than proactive aggression. However, not all individuals who experience anger are also aggressive. In this context, emotion theories increasingly acknowledge the relevance of emotion goals (i.e. what people want to feel) for emotional experience, emotion regulation, and associated behavioral correlates. The present study investigated whether the emotion goal of anger (the extent to which people want to feel anger) moderated the association between trait anger and aggression in a Dutch community sample (N = 521; 59.9% women; Mage = 35.27, SD = 15.99). Results showed that trait anger and the emotion goal of anger were both positively related with reactive and proactive aggression. Trait anger was comparatively more strongly related to reactive aggression, and the emotion goal of anger was comparatively more strongly related to proactive aggression. The emotion goal of anger moderated the association between trait anger and proactive aggression, such that this association was stronger in individuals that reported that they wanted to experience anger to a greater extent. These findings suggest that both reactive and proactive aggression may be underlain by experience of and preference for anger. Further, they stress that individual differences in preference for the experience of anger may potentiate the anger-aggression link, with special relevance for proactive aggression.