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People in Tonga generally display less anger than inhabitants of "Western" countries. This emerges partly from the fact that in Tongan culture, socially disruptive feelings are evaluated negatively. To examine whether anger is also less frequently elicited in Tonga and, if so, which factors mediate such a difference, our interdisciplinary project combines anthropological fieldwork with a psychological survey using questionnaires. Following appraisal theories of emotion, we assume that similar evaluations of an event will result in similar emotions, whereas the evaluation itself will depend on culturally defined concepts, experiences, and values. After establishing a conceptual foundation for comparison, we systematically analyze the elicitation of anger. Results support most appraisal theoretic predictions but also indicate a stronger influence of social relations on anger in Tonga than in Germany. This influence can be traced back to the values and norms attached to stratification in Tonga.

In this research we examine how normative expressions of prejudice shape university communities. Across four studies, we examine the prevalence of a former university mascot depicting harmful stereotypes about Native Americans and how exposure to that mascot influences people’s attitudes and behaviors. In Study 1, images of the mascot persist on more than 10% of university apparel worn by students, in 50% of campus spaces, and in 5% of images searched online. Surveying students on this campus, we find that students with lower (higher) reported explicit prejudice also tended to have lower (higher) belonging at the university (Study 2). In two final experimental studies (N = 683), when compared to stereotype free university advertisements exposure to the stereotypic mascot reduced donations to the university by 5.5%, and in particular, among people low versus high in explicit prejudice (Studies 3 and 4). Overall, these findings suggest that institutions play an important role in shaping the intergroup attitudes of their membership.

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