Anger, Fear, or Sadness: Faculty Members’ Emotional Reactions to Collective Pay Disadvantage Heather J. Smith Sonoma State University Tracey Cronin University of Kansas Thomas Kessler University of Jena As part of a mail survey about their work experiences, university faculty members reported their specific emotional reactions to group inequities in faculty pay and benefits. The results indicate that sadness, fear, and anger are distinct emotional responses to a collective disadvantage. Group-based anger mediated the relationship between collective disadvan- tage and willingness to protest whereas group-based sadness mediated the relationship between collective disadvantage and organizational loyalty. Based on an integration of cognitive appraisal models of emotion with RD theory, four other predictors of intergroup emotions—(1) the legitimacy of the process that produced the deprivation, (2) whether another agent was responsible, (3) group efficacy, and (4) whether the situation would improve or become worse—were identified and tested. The measurement of specific emo- tional reactions to perceived collective disadvantage extends and refines RD approaches to collective action and organizational loyalty. KEY WORDS: relative deprivation, collective action, collective disadvantage, organizational loyalty, intergroup emotion Two professors discover that their salaries are much lower than the salaries for faculty members at comparable institutions. One professor immediately joins the faculty union and actively participates in rallies and other protests. The other professor begins to miss appointments with students, arrives late to class, and considers other employment options. Both professors report that the faculty is deprived, but they assess and react to the situation in very different ways. The Political Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2008 221 0162-895X © 2008 International Society of Political Psychology Published by Blackwell Publishing. Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, and PO Box 378 Carlton South, 3053 Victoria Australia