As we show later, expressions of attitudes show a similar relativity. Furthermore,
casual observation indicates that affective values}not only the words used to
describe them}are themselves relative. Thus, a guest’s rude behavior at a party
can arouse intense outrage and anger. Murder is much worse than rudeness, of
course, but murder is not part of the evoked context that determines the emotional
response to a rude remark. The relativity of affective value explains why people
often seem to care intensely about matters that they can also view as trivial when
the context changes.