Getting Emotional
Sealing the Emotions Genie: The Effects of Physical Enclosure on Psychological Closure
Xiuping Li, Liyuan Wei & Dilip Soman
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research investigated whether the physical act of enclosing an emotionally laden stimulus can help alleviate the associated negative emotions. Four experiments found support for this claim. In Experiments 1a and 1b, emotional negativity was reduced for participants who placed a written recollection of a regretted past decision or unsatisfied strong desire inside an envelope. However, enclosing a stimulus unrelated to the emotional experience did not have the same effect (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, we showed that the effect was not driven by participants simply doing something extra with the materials, and that the effect of physical enclosure was mediated by the psychological closure that participants felt toward the event.
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Guilty, free, and wise: Determinism and psychopathy diminish learning from negative emotions
Tyler Stillman & Roy Baumeister
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Emotional experiences can bring about personal growth. For instance, feeling guilty may prompt one to learn from a mistake, and this learning can bring about different and better future behavior. Four studies (N = 570) found that belief in free will facilitated learning from emotional experiences, as deterministic beliefs were associated with reduced learning. Studies included both correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Studies 2-4) designs. Emotional responsiveness, as defined by low psychopathy scores, also facilitated learning from emotional experiences (Studies 3 and 4). The degree of learning associated with emotional experiences was measured by self-rating (Studies 1 and 2), independent evaluations of lessons learned (Study 3), and whether participants joined a campus recycling program (after being made to feel guilty about an environmental transgression; Study 4).
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The effects of BOTOX injections on emotional experience
Joshua Ian Davis, Ann Senghas, Fredric Brandt & Kevin Ochsner
Emotion, June 2010, Pages 433-440
Abstract:
Although it was proposed over a century ago that feedback from facial expressions influence emotional experience, tests of this hypothesis have been equivocal. Here we directly tested this facial feedback hypothesis (FFH) by comparing the impact on self-reported emotional experience of BOTOX injections (which paralyze muscles of facial expression) and a control Restylane injection (which is a cosmetic filler that does not affect facial muscles). When examined alone, BOTOX participants showed no pre- to posttreatment changes in emotional responses to our most positive and negative video clips. Between-groups comparisons, however, showed that relative to controls, BOTOX participants exhibited an overall significant decrease in the strength of emotional experience. This result was attributable to (a) a pre- versus postdecrease in responses to mildly positive clips in the BOTOX group and (b) an unexpected increase in responses to negative clips in the Restylane control group. These data suggest that feedback from facial expressions is not necessary for emotional experience, but may influence emotional experience in some circumstances. These findings point to specific directions for future work clarifying the expression-experience relationship.
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Emotional reactions to losing explain gender differences in entering a risky lottery
Kimmo Eriksson & Brent Simpson
Judgment and Decision Making, June 2010, Pages 159-163
Abstract:
A gender difference in risk preferences, with women being more averse to risky choices, is a robust experimental finding. Speculating on the sources of this difference, Croson and Gneezy recently pointed to the tendency for women to experience emotions more strongly and suggested that feeling more strongly about negative outcomes would lead to greater risk-aversion. Here we test this hypothesis in an international survey with 424 respondents from India and 416 from US where we ask questions about a hypothetical lottery. In both countries we find that emotions about outcomes are stronger among women, and that this effect partially mediates gender difference in willingness to enter the lottery.
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Optimistic Expectancies and Cell-Mediated Immunity: The Role of Positive Affect
Suzanne Segerstrom & Sandra Sephton
Psychological Science, March 2010, Pages 448-455
Abstract:
Optimistic expectancies affect many psychosocial outcomes and may also predict immune system changes and health, but the nature and mechanisms of any such physiological effects have not been identified. The present study related law-school expectancies to cell-mediated immunity (CMI), examining the within- and between-person components of this relationship and affective mediators. First-year law students (N = 124) completed questionnaire measures of expectancies and affect and received delayed-type hypersensitivity skin tests at five time points. A positive relationship between optimistic expectancies and CMI occurred: Changes in optimism correlated with changes in CMI. Likewise, changes in optimism predicted changes in positive and, to a lesser degree, negative affect, but the relationship between optimism and immunity was partially accounted for only by positive affect. This dynamic relationship between expectancies and immunity has positive implications for psychological interventions to improve health, particularly those that increase positive affect.
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Gerben Van Kleef, Christina Anastasopoulou & Bernard Nijstad
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigated whether expressions of anger can enhance creative performance. Building on the emotions as social information (EASI) model (Van Kleef, 2009), we predicted that the interpersonal effects of anger expressions on creativity depend on the target's epistemic motivation (EM) - the desire to develop an accurate understanding of the situation (Kruglanski, 1989). Participants worked on an idea generation task in the role of "generator." Then they received standardized feedback and tips from an "evaluator" (a trained actor) via a video setup. The feedback was delivered in an angry way or in a neutral way (via facial expressions, vocal intonation, and bodily postures). Participants with high EM exhibited greater fluency, originality, and flexibility after receiving angry rather than neutral feedback, whereas those with low EM were less creative after receiving angry feedback. These effects were mediated by task engagement and motivation, which anger increased (decreased) among high (low) EM participants.
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Effects of Directed Written Disclosure on Grief and Distress Symptoms Among Bereaved Individuals
Wendy Lichtenthal & Dean Cruess
Death Studies, July 2010, Pages 475-499
Abstract:
Bereavement-specific written disclosure trials have generally demonstrated null effects, but these studies have not directed the focus of writing. This randomized controlled trial compared directed writing that focused on either sense-making or benefit-finding, both associated with adjustment to loss, to traditional, non-directed emotional disclosure and a control condition. Bereaved undergraduates (n = 68) completed three 20-min writing sessions over 1 week. Intervention effects were found on prolonged grief disorder, depressive, and posttraumatic stress symptoms 3 months postintervention, and the benefit-finding condition appeared particularly efficacious. Physical health improved over time in all treatment groups. Findings suggested that directing written disclosure on topics associated with adjustment to bereavement may be useful for grieving individuals.
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The ability to process emotional information predicts loss aversion
Peter Bibby & Eamonn Ferguson
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
On the basis of previous research it was hypothesized that alexithymia is associated with a higher tolerance for losses. This hypothesis is extended to explore whether the putative link between loss aversion and alexithymia remains once traits associated with risk taking (sensation seeking) and broad based personality traits (the Big 5) are controlled. Participants (N = 260) completed indices of alexithymia, sensation seeking and the Big 5 and both a riskless (endowment effect) and risky (lottery task) measure of loss aversion. It was found that the higher the alexithymia score the lower the loss aversion for both riskless and risky decisions even when sex, sensation seeking and the Big 5 are taken into account. The implications for this finding are discussed in the light of a neurological explanation of the relationship between alexithymia and loss aversion.
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Emotional Inertia and Psychological Maladjustment
Peter Kuppens, Nicholas Allen & Lisa Sheeber
Psychological Science, July 2010, Pages 984-991
Abstract:
In this article, we examine the concept of emotional inertia as a fundamental property of the emotion dynamics that characterize psychological maladjustment. Emotional inertia refers to the degree to which emotional states are resistant to change. Because psychological maladjustment has been associated with both emotional underreactivity and ineffective emotion-regulation skills, we hypothesized that its overall emotion dynamics would be characterized by high levels of inertia. We provide evidence from two naturalistic studies that, using different methods, showed that the emotional fluctuations of individuals who exhibited low self-esteem (Study 1) and depression (Study 2) were characterized by higher levels of inertia in both positive and negative emotions than the emotional fluctuations of people who did not exhibit low self-esteem and depression. We also discuss the usefulness of the concept of emotional inertia as a hallmark of maladaptive emotion dynamics.
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Inferring the preferences of others from spontaneous, low-emotional facial expressions
Michael North, Alexander Todorov & Daniel Osherson
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present study investigates whether people can infer the preferences of others from spontaneous facial expressions alone. We utilize a paradigm that unobtrusively records people's natural facial reactions to relatively mundane stimuli while they simultaneously report which ones they find more appealing. Videos were then presented to perceivers who attempted to infer the choices of the target individuals-thereby linking perceiver inferences to objective outcomes. Perceivers demonstrated above-chance ability to infer target preferences across four different stimulus categories: people (attractiveness), cartoons (humor), paintings (decorative appeal), and animals (cuteness). While perceivers' subjective ratings of expressivity varied somewhat between targets, these ratings did not predict the relative "readability" of the targets. The findings suggest that non-communicative, natural facial behavior by itself suffices for certain types of interpersonal prediction, even in low-emotional contexts.
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Jeroen Stouten & David De Cremer
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, July 2010, Pages 271-287
Abstract:
In social dilemmas, verbal communication of one's intentions is an important factor in increasing cooperation. In addition to verbal communication of one's intentions, also the communication of emotions of anger and happiness can influence cooperative behavior. In the present paper, we argue that facial expressions of emotion moderate verbal communication in social dilemmas. More specifically, three experiments showed that if the other person displayed happiness he or she was perceived as honest, trustworthy, and reliable, and cooperation was increased when verbal communication was cooperative rather than self-interested. However, if the other person displayed anger, verbal communication did not influence people's decision behavior. Results also showed interactive effects on people's perceptions of trustworthiness, which partially mediated decision behavior. These findings suggest that emotion displays have an important function in organizational settings because they are able to influence social interactions and cooperative behavior.
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Red Diffuse Light Suppresses the Accelerated Perception of Fear
Greg West, Adam Anderson, Jeffrey Bedwell & Jay Pratt
Psychological Science, July 2010, Pages 992-999
Abstract:
Prioritization of affective events may occur via two parallel pathways originating from the retina-a parvocellular (P) pathway projecting to ventral-stream structures responsible for object recognition or a faster and phylogenetically older magnocellular (M) pathway projecting to dorsal-stream structures responsible for localization and action. It has previously been demonstrated that retinal exposure to red diffuse light suppresses M-cell neural activity. We tested whether the fast propagation along the dorsal-action pathway drives an accelerated conduction of fear-based content. Using a visual prior-entry procedure, we assessed accelerated stimulus perception while either suppressing the M pathway with red diffuse light or leaving it unaffected with green diffuse light. We show that the encoding of fearful faces is accelerated, but not when M-channel activity is suppressed, revealing a dissociation that implicates a privileged neural link between emotion and action that begins at the retina.
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Intranasal Arginine Vasopressin Enhances the Encoding of Happy and Angry Faces in Humans
Adam Guastella, Amanda Kenyon, Gail Alvares, Dean Carson & Ian Hickie
Biological Psychiatry, 15 June 2010, Pages 1220-1222
Background: Arginine vasopressin (AVP) has a complex but crucial role in social behavior. In nonhuman mammals it facilitates social recognition and bonding while also promoting defensive, aggressive, and territorial behaviors. There has been little research in humans exploring its effect on social cognition, including the encoding of social memories.
Methods: In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, we administered AVP (20 IU) or a placebo intranasally to 48 healthy human male volunteers and then presented 54 happy, angry, or neutral human faces. Participants returned the following day to make "remember", "know", or "new" judgments for a mix of 108 new and previously seen faces. Results: Participants who were administered AVP were more likely to make know judgments for previously seen happy and angry faces in comparison with neutral human faces. Arginine vasopressin did not influence judgments for faces that had not been presented previously.
Conclusions: Administration of AVP to male humans enhances the encoding of both happy and angry social information to make this more memorable.
Results suggest that AVP could facilitate both bonding and aggressive related behaviors in humans by enhancing the encoding of positive and negative social cues within everyday interactions.
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Qian Lu & Annette Stanton
Psychology & Health, July 2010, Pages 669-684
Abstract:
Written emotional disclosure has been reported to confer a variety of benefits on physical and psychological well-being. However, variable findings suggest that outcomes may vary systematically as a function of specific parameters of the experimental design. This study aims to investigate the unique and combined effects of disclosure instructions focusing on emotional expression and instructions facilitating cognitive reappraisal and to examine how ambivalence over emotional expression and ethnicity moderate the effects of these writing instructions. Seventy-one Asian and 59 Caucasian undergraduates (N = 130) with at least minimal physical or depressive symptoms were randomly assigned to one of the four writing conditions: emotional disclosure (ED), cognitive reappraisal (COG), the combination of ED and COG, or a control condition. Self-reported physical symptoms, positive affect (PA) and negative affect were assessed at baseline and three follow-ups spanning 4 months. Mixed linear models revealed that COG writing reduced physical symptoms, ED buffered a decrease in PA over time, and the combination of ED and COG (i.e. self-regulation; SR) was most effective. Asians and highly ambivalent participants benefited most from expressive writing. Findings contribute to the development of a SR moderator model and carry implications for designing expressive disclosure studies, particularly for ethnic minorities.
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Andreas Mühlberger, Matthias Wieser, Antje Gerdes, Monika Frey, Peter Weyers & Paul Pauli
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Static pictures of emotional facial expressions have been found to activate brain structures involved in the processing of emotional stimuli. However, in everyday live, emotional expressions are changing rapidly, and the processing of the onset vs the offset of the very same emotional expression might rely on different brain networks, presumably leading to different behavioral and physiological reactions (e.g. approach or avoidance). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, this was examined by presenting video clips depicting onsets and offsets of happy and angry facial expressions. Subjective valence and threat ratings clearly depended on the direction of change. Blood oxygen level dependent responses indicate both reward- and threat-related activations for the offset of angry expressions. Comparing onsets and offsets, angry offsets were associated with stronger ventral striatum activation than angry onsets. Additionally, the offset of happy and the onset of angry expressions showed strong common activity in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex bilaterally, the left amygdala and the left insula, whereas the onset of happy and the offset of angry expressions induced significant activation in the left dorsal striatum. In sum, the results confirm different activity in motivation-related brain areas in response to the onset and offset of the same emotional expression and highlight the importance of temporal characteristics of facial expressions for social communication.