Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract

This papers presents the overall framework of the IRRITATION project, and some of its psychological findings. We outline three experimental studies, carried out with children and adults in Finland, China, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Sri Lanka, with the focus on how irritation shapes human cooperation.

Paper long abstract

As a social pathway, irritation is both mildly destructive and productive. Based on ethnography that showed the benefits of irritation, e.g. as a source of motivation and punishment, we ran a number of experiments to investigate its role in cooperation (in Finland, China, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Sri Lanka). Children and adults observed three rounds of hypothetical interactions between two anonymous players in an Economic Game: a decider made selfish, equal, or altruistic decisions, while a receiver always replied “I am irritated because of your decision.” Children in all countries perceived equal and altruistic decisions as comparably justified and selfish decisions as unjustified. Yet they viewed irritation toward all decisions as unjustified—especially toward equal and altruistic decisions—and responded with low cooperation motivation and likability. There were considerable cross-cultural differences: Brazilian and Zimbabwean children showed higher cooperative tendencies, compared to Chinese and Finnish children. Adults showed a different pattern: they valued equal decisions the most and judged irritation toward selfishness as justified. But their cooperation motivations in response to justified irritation varied across countries—more positive in Finland and Brazil, neutral in Zimbabwe and China, and negative in Sri Lanka. A third study further revealed that in Finland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, irritation toward selfish decisions was more justified and less damaging to cooperation motivation than anger. Together, this work shows that irritation serves as a potential sanction for unjustified decisions, and reveals a developmental trajectory from general disapproval in children to culture‑specific understanding in adults.