Mitigating Moral Emotions After Crises: A Reconceptualization of Organizational Responses

P. Antonetti, C. Valor, B. Božič

Journal of Business Ethics Vol. 203, nº. 4, pp. 787 - 805

Summary:

Crises evoke a broad palette of negative moral emotions. However, past research has almost exclusively investigated anger. Building on insights from constructivist and social-functionalist theories of emotions, this conceptual article develops an account of how anger, disgust and contempt influence evaluators’ responses to crises and conceptualizes the organizational responses that mitigate each of these emotions. While anger focuses attention on the transgression itself, contempt and disgust are associated, respectively, with broader concerns about the transgressor’s competence and moral character. Consequently, to mitigate negative emotions other than anger, organizational response strategies should do more than merely match attributions of situational responsibility. By matching the response strategy’s attention focus (on the transgression versus the transgressor) and interpretation focus (on harm versus moral character versus competence) with the evaluators’ emotions, organizations can attempt to mitigate combinations of anger, disgust and contempt. This paper shows that, while strategies attempting to mitigate anger aim primarily to improve perceptions of the crisis, responses to disgust and contempt aim to shift the perception of the transgressing organization. The paper extends our understanding of crisis management by exploring the role of discrete emotions, by extending the notion of matching as a key mechanism to mitigate evaluators’ negative emotions, and by examining how organizations should respond to the specific threat posed by distinct negative emotions.

Spanish layman's summary:

Las transgresiones de las empresas evocan enfado, desprecio y desdén. Explicamos cómo estas emociones llevan a interpretar la crisis de forma diferente y cómo la respuesta de la empresa puede aumentar o reducir estas emociones. 

English layman's summary:

Organizational moral transgressions elicit anger, contempt and disgust. We explain how these emotions differ in the sensemaking of the crises and how the organizational response can stall or exacerbate these emotions. 

Keywords: Crisis management; Crisis response; Crisis communications; Moral emotions; Moral transgression;

JCR-JIF Impact Factor and WoS quartile: 6,300 - Q1 (2025)

DOI reference: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06042-5

Published on paper: February 2026.

Published on-line: July 2025.

Citation:
P. Antonetti, C. Valor, B. Božič, "Mitigating Moral Emotions After Crises: A Reconceptualization of Organizational Responses", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 203, nº. 4, pp. 787 - 805, February 2026. [Online: July 2025] doi: 10.1007/s10551-025-06042-5