Poor women and the expression of shame and anger: The price of breaking social class feeling rules

Abstract

We investigate observers’ reactions to a poor woman who fails to express deferent emotion when asking for assistance. Participants (N = 68) viewed an ad featuring a woman actor playing the beneficiary of a charity aiding either the poor or the sick, and who expressed anger or shame. When the poor woman expressed anger, participants responded with anger. When participants were asked to choose whether the charity should use an emotional appeal or a neutral appeal in their advertising, the condition with the ashamed poor woman was the only one where there was a clear preference for the emotion ad. Implications are discussed for poor women as political actors and recipients of social services.