Venting makes people prefer—and preferentially support—us over those we vent about

IF 3 1区 心理学 Q1 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Evolution and Human Behavior Pub Date : 2024-08-03 DOI:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106608
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

People vent, as when airing grievances about one mutual friend to another. Contrary to a Freudian account, such social venting does not alleviate anger. So, what function might it serve? That people bestow more and more likely support on relatively better-liked friends—support which is associated with greater health, happiness, and economic mobility—highlights a largely overlooked challenge in social groups: competing within the group for certain group members' affections and support. Social venting might be one effective tool for meeting this challenge. We test this—and also compare venting's efficacy with other forms of communication, including a well-studied tactic of partner competition (competitor derogation). In six experiments with U.S. CloudResearch participants (N = 1723), venting causes listeners (people vented to) to prefer venters over targets (people vented about) and to preferentially benefit better-liked venters over targets in a modified Dictator Game. By obscuring the venters' intent to aggress against the target, venting might communicate target-harming information in a way that buffers venters from being perceived unfavorably. Effective venting might thus manipulate listeners' attitudes and behavior in venters' favor.

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发泄让人们更喜欢--更倾向于支持我们,而不是我们发泄的对象
人们会发泄,比如向另一个共同的朋友倾诉不满。与弗洛伊德的说法相反,这样做并不能缓解愤怒。那么,它能起到什么作用呢?人们对相对更喜欢的朋友给予更多和更可能的支持--这种支持与更大的健康、幸福和经济流动性相关--凸显了社会群体中一个被忽视的挑战:在群体中争夺某些群体成员的情感和支持。社交发泄可能是应对这一挑战的有效工具之一。我们检验了这一点,并比较了发泄与其他交流形式的功效,包括一种研究得很透彻的伙伴竞争策略(竞争者贬损)。在以美国云研究(CloudResearch)参与者(= 1723 人)为对象的六项实验中,发泄会使倾听者(被发泄者)更喜欢发泄者,而不是发泄对象(被发泄者),并且在修改后的独裁者游戏中,更喜欢发泄者,而不是发泄对象。通过掩盖发泄者攻击目标的意图,发泄可能会以一种缓冲的方式传达伤害目标的信息,从而避免发泄者被认为是不利的。因此,有效的发泄可能会操纵听众的态度和行为,使之有利于发泄者。
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来源期刊
Evolution and Human Behavior
Evolution and Human Behavior 生物-行为科学
CiteScore
8.30
自引率
9.80%
发文量
62
审稿时长
82 days
期刊介绍: Evolution and Human Behavior is an interdisciplinary journal, presenting research reports and theory in which evolutionary perspectives are brought to bear on the study of human behavior. It is primarily a scientific journal, but submissions from scholars in the humanities are also encouraged. Papers reporting on theoretical and empirical work on other species will be welcome if their relevance to the human animal is apparent.
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