Frustration, Euphoria, and Violent Crime

Rossi, Martin and Munyo, Ignacio (2021): Frustration, Euphoria, and Violent Crime.

Abstract

We exploit a series of natural experiments that use real crime data to investigate the effect of a violation of expectancies on violent crime. We study two types of violation of expectancies that generate the emotions of frustration and euphoria. Our empirical designs exploit differential expectations (as measured by the odds of soccer games in the betting market) while maintaining the outcome unchanged (a loss in a soccer game for frustration, a win in a soccer game for euphoria). We find that frustration is followed by a spike in violent crime whereas euphoria is followed by a reduction in violent crime. The two effects are concentrated in a narrow time window after the end of the game: one hour.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: violation of expectancies; soccer; natural experiment; robbery; theft; aggression
• Subjects: K - Law and Economics > K4 - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior > K42 - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

References

Abler, B., Walter, H. Erk, S., 2005. Neural correlates of frustration. NeuroReport 16 (7), 669-672.

Amsel, A., 1992. Frustration Theory: An Analysis of Dispositional Learning and Memory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Andrade, E., Ariely, D., 2009. The enduring impact of transient emotions on decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 109, 1-8.

Baumeister, R., DeWall, C., Vohs, K., Alquist, K., 2010. Does emotion cause behavior (apart from making people do stupid, destructive things)? In: Agnew, C., Carlston, C., Graziano, D., Kelly, J. (Eds). Then a Miracle Occurs: Focusing on Behavior in Social Psychological Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.

Becker, G., 1968. Crime and punishment: an economic approach. Journal of Political Economy 76, 169-217.

Bell, R., Hepper, P., 1987. Catecholamines and aggression in animals. Behavioural Brain Research 23 (1), 1-21.

Berkowitz, L., 1962. Aggression: A Social Psychological Analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Browman, R., 1983. Understanding and conducting event studies. Journal of Business and Accounting 10, 561-584.

Canon, W., 1915. Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Card, D., Dahl, G., 2011. Family violence and football: the effect of unexpected emotional cues on violent behavior. Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (1), 103-143.

Crespi, L., 1942. Quantitative variation in incentive and performance in the white rat. American Journal of Psychology 40, 467-517.

Dantzer, R., Arnone, M., Mormede, P., 1980. Effects of frustration on behaviour and plasma corticosteroid levels in pigs. Physiology & Behavior 24 (1), 1-4.

Della Vigna, S., 2009. Psychology and economics: evidence from the field. Journal of Economic Literature 47, 315-372.

Dollard, J., Doob, L., Miller, N., Mowrer, O., Sears, R., 1939. Frustration and Aggression. New Haven: Yale University Freer.

Duncan, I., Wood-Gus, D., 1971. Frustration and aggression in the domestic fowl. Animal Behaviour 19 (3), 500-504.

Dunn, J., Schweitzer, M., 2005. Feeling and believing: The influence of emotion on trust. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 6, 736-748.

Ekkers, C., 1975. Catecholamine excretion, conscience function and aggressive behavior. Biological Psychology 3 (1), 15-30.

Ekman, P., 1999. Basic emotions. In: Dalgleish, T., Power, M. (Eds.). Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Fama, E., Fisher, L., Jensen, M., Roll, R., 1969. The adjustment of stock prices to new information. International Economic Review 10 (1), 1-21.

Flaherty, C., 1996. Incentive Relativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Galeano, E., 1995. El Fútbol a Sol y Sombra. Siglo XXI de España Editores.

Gantz, W., Bradley, S., Wang, Z., 2006. Televised NFL games, the family, and domestic violence. In: A. Raney, A., Bryant, J. (Eds.). Handbook of Sports and Media. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

Gottfredson, M., Hirschi, T., 1993. A control theory interpretation of psychological research on aggression. In: Felson, R., Tedeschi, J. (Eds.). Aggression and Violence: Social Interactionist Perspectives. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

Hamburg, D., Hamburg, B., Barchas, J., 1975. Anger and depression in perspective of behavioral biology. In: Levi, L. (Ed.). Emotions: Their Parameters and Measurement. New York: Raven Press.

Isen, A., Clark, M., Schwartz, M., 1976. Duration of the effect of good mood on helping: Footprints on the sands of time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34, 385-393.

Koszegi, B., Rabin, M., 2006. A model of reference-dependent preferences. Quarterly Journal of Economics 121 (4), 1133-1165.

Kugler, T., Connolly, T., Ordóñez, L., 2012. Emotion, decision and risk: betting on gambles vs. betting on people. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 25, 123-134.

Lerner, J., Small, D., Loewenstein, G., 2004. Heart strings and purse strings: Carry-over effects of emotions on economic transactions. Psychological Science 15 (5), 337-341.

MacKinlay, C., 1997. Event studies in economics and finance. Journal of Economic Literature 35 (1), 13-39.

Manucia, G., Baumann, D., Cialdini, R., 1984. Mood influences on helping: Direct effects or side effects? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46, 357–364.

Otis, J., Ley, R., 1993. The effects of frustration induced by discontinuation of reinforcement on force of response and magnitude of the skin conductance response. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 31 (2), 97-100.

Papini, M., 2003. Comparative psychology of surprising nonreward. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 62, 83-95.

Priks, M., 2010. Does frustration lead to violence? Evidence from the Swedish hooligan scene. Kyklos 63 (3), 450-460.

Quigg, Z., Hughes, K., Bellis, M., 2012. Effects of the 2010 World Cup football tournament on emergency department assault attendances in England. European Journal of Public Health, August (Epub ahead of print).

Rees, D., Schnepel, K., 2009. College football games and crime. Journal of Sports Economics 10, 68-86.

Scheirer, J., Fernandez, R., Klein, J., Picard, R., 2002. Frustrating the user on purpose: a step toward building an affective computer. Interacting with Computers 14, 93-118.

Sivarajasingam, V., Moore, S., Shepherd, J., 2005. Winning, losing, and violence. Injury Prevention 11 (2), 69-70.

Tomie, A., Carelli, R., Wagner, G., 1993. Negative correlation between tone (CS-) and water induces target-biting in rats. Animal Learning and Behavior 21, 355-359.

Tranel, D., 1983. The effects of monetary incentive and frustrative nonreward on heart rate and electrodermal activity. Psychophysiology 20, 652-657.

Vacca, G., Phillips, A., 2005. Inhibition of successive positive contrast in rats withdrawn from an escalating dose schedule of D-amphetamine. International Journal of Comparative Psychology 18, 298-306.

Vohs, K., Baumeister, R., Loewenstein, G., 2007. Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making? A Hedgefoxian Perspective. New York: Russell.

Weinstein, L., 1981. Incentive contrast effects in humans with monetary reinforcement and reaction time. Acta Psychologica 47, 83-87.

Whitley, B., Kite, M., 2010. The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.