What affective states mediate/moderate Vicarious Retribution?
Anger has been shown to be the prime mediator of the link between a provocation and vicarious retribution (Stenstrom, Unpublished Manuscript). Group Pride, as explained in Social Identity Theory ((Tajfel, 1981)), states that people derive a sense of self-worth from their identity as a member of a group. People who are highly identified are more likely to react negatively to threats to their group ((Branscombe, Ellemers, Spears, and Doosje, 1999)). Group Empathy – Empathy has been defined as one’s ability to cognitively understand another’s internal state (e.g. (Hogan, 1969; Underwood & Moore, 1982)) or experience an emotion similar to that felt by another person (e.g., (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987); (Stotland, 1969)) or congruent with his or her welfare (e.g., (Batson, et al., 1988); (Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972)). Although the conceptual distinctions between these different types of empathy are important for some research arenas, what is important for our model is that empathy is a vicario
