Experience sampling data reveal that people can experience mixed emotions (i.e., the co-occurrenc... more Experience sampling data reveal that people can experience mixed emotions (i.e., the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect) in daily life and that some pairs of oppositevalence emotions co-occur more often than others. Both experience sampling and laboratory data suggest that, not surprisingly, people often experience mixed emotions when dealing with complex events that can readily be appraised as having both pleasant and unpleasant aspects (e.g., events that foster the pursuit of one goal but thwart that of another). More intriguingly, some events that can only readily be appraised as having unpleasant aspects (e.g., heartbreaking film scenes depicting a character's death) can also elicit mixed emotions.
We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., ... more We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., frontal attacks) resulted in shortened estimations and were mediated by cognitive processes, and that judgments of threatening (e.g., angry) face pictures resulted in a smaller effect and did not seem cognitively mediated. In the present study, the effects of threatening scenes and faces were compared in two different tasks. An effect of threatening scene pictures occurred in a prediction-motion task, which putatively requires cognitive motion extrapolation, but not in a relative TTC judgment task, which was designed to be less reliant on cognitive processes. An effect of threatening face pictures did not occur in either task. We propose that an object's explicit potential of threat per se, and not only emotional valence, underlies the effect of threatening scenes on TTC judgments and that such an effect occurs only when the task allows sufficient cognitive processing. Results are consistent with distinctions between predator and social fear systems and different underlying physiological mechanisms. Not all threatening information elicits the same responses, and whether an effect occurs at all may depend on the task and the degree to which the task involves cognitive processes.
Counterfactual feelings of regret occur when people make comparisons between an actual outcome an... more Counterfactual feelings of regret occur when people make comparisons between an actual outcome and a better outcome that would have occurred under a different choice. We investigated the choices of individuals with damage to the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and the lateral orbital frontal cortex (LOFC) to see whether their emotional responses were sensitive to regret. Participants made choices between gambles, each with monetary outcomes. After every choice, subjects learned the consequences of both gambles and rated their emotional response to the outcome. Normal subjects and lesion control subjects tended to make better choices and reported post-decision emotions that were sensitive to regret comparisons. VMPFC patients tended to make worse choices, and, contrary to our predictions, they reported emotions that were sensitive to regret comparisons. In contrast, LOFC patients made better choices, but reported emotional reactions that were insensitive to regret comparisons. We suggest the VMPFC is involved in the association between choices and anticipated emotions that guide future choices, while the LOFC is involved in experienced emotions that follow choices, emotions that may signal the need for behavioral change.
The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (tim... more The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (time-to-collision, TTC) is crucial for any mobile animal. In the present study, we report three experiments examining whether higher level cognitive factors, represented by affective value of approaching objects, could affect judgments of TTC. A theory of TTC estimates based purely on the optical variable tau does not predict an influence of the affective value of an approaching object. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared TTC estimates of threatening and neutral pictures that approached our participants on a screen and disappeared from view before a collision would have occurred. Images were taken from the International Affective Picture System. Threatening pictures-in particular, the picture of a frontal attack-were judged to collide earlier than neutral pictures. In Experiment 3, the approaching stimuli were faces with different emotional expressions. TTC tended to be underestimated for angry faces. We discuss these results, considering the roles of affective and cognitive mechanisms modulating TTC estimation and general time perception.
Theories of the structure of affect make competing predictions about whether people can feel happ... more Theories of the structure of affect make competing predictions about whether people can feel happy and sad at the same time. Considerable evidence that happiness and sadness can co-occur has accumulated in the past 15 years, but holes in the case remain. I describe those holes and suggest strategies for testing them in future research. I also explore the possibility that the case may never be closed, in part because the competing hypotheses may not be entirely falsifiable. Fortunately, hypotheses need not be falsifiable to be useful. Research on mixed emotions has been generative and the body of research will continue to shed light on the structure of affect.
The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related brain potential elicited by error commissi... more The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related brain potential elicited by error commission and by presentation of feedback stimuli indicating incorrect performance. In this study, the authors report two experiments in which participants tried to learn to select between response options by trial and error, using feedback stimuli indicating monetary gains and losses. The results demonstrate that the amplitude of the ERN is determined by the value of the eliciting outcome relative to the range of outcomes possible, rather than by the objective value of the outcome. This result is discussed in terms of a recent theory that holds that the ERN reflects a reward prediction error signal associated with a neural system for reinforcement learning.
The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (tim... more The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (time-to-collision, TTC) is crucial for any mobile animal. In the present study, we report three experiments examining whether higher level cognitive factors, represented by affective value of approaching objects, could affect judgments of TTC. A theory of TTC estimates based purely on the optical variable tau does not predict an influence of the affective value of an approaching object. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared TTC estimates of threatening and neutral pictures that approached our participants on a screen and disappeared from view before a collision would have occurred. Images were taken from the International Affective Picture System. Threatening pictures-in particular, the picture of a frontal attack-were judged to collide earlier than neutral pictures. In Experiment 3, the approaching stimuli were faces with different emotional expressions. TTC tended to be underestimated for a...
In his now-classic research on inoculation theory, McGuire (1964) demonstrated that exposing peop... more In his now-classic research on inoculation theory, McGuire (1964) demonstrated that exposing people to an initial weak counterattitudinal message could lead to enhanced resistance to a subsequent stronger counterattitudinal message. More recently, research on the valence-framing effect (Bizer & Petty, 2005) demonstrated an alternative way to make attitudes more resistant. Simply framing a person's attitude negatively (i.e., in terms of a rejected position such as anti-Democrat) led to more resistance to an attack on that attitude than did framing the same attitude positively (i.e., in terms of a preferred position such as pro-Republican). Using an election context, the current research tested whether valence framing influences attitude resistance specifically or attitude strength more generally, providing insight into the effect's mechanism and generalizability. In two experiments, attitude valence was manipulated by framing a position either negatively or positively. Experi...
Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1954) proposed that "happiness is not having what you want, but wanti... more Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1954) proposed that "happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have" (p. 37). In two studies, we tested Schachtel's maxim by asking participants whether or not they had and the extent to which they wanted each of 52 material items. To quantify how much people wanted what they had, we identified what they had and the extent to which they wanted those things. To quantify how much people had what they wanted, we identified how much they wanted and whether or not they had each item. Both variables accounted for unique variance in happiness. Moreover, the extent to which people wanted what they had partially mediated effects of gratitude and maximization on happiness, and the extent to which they had what they wanted partially mediated the effect of maximization. Results indicate that happiness is both wanting what you have and having what you want.
Elevated neuroticism is associated with increased psychological reactivity to stressors. Research... more Elevated neuroticism is associated with increased psychological reactivity to stressors. Research on individual differences and physiological reactivity (e.g., electrodermal activity), however, has focused on clinical samples and measures of basal activity (e.g., nonspecific skin conductance responses) or responses to nonaffective stimuli. Surprisingly, there is a dearth of work on physiological reactivity to emotional stimuli as a function of neuroticism. Thus, the authors sought to examine the relationship between neuroticism and skin conductance reactivity to emotionally evocative pictures in a nonclinical sample. Individuals higher in neuroticism exhibited both greater skin conductance reactivity to emotional (and particularly aversive) pictures as well as more extended reactivity than did emotionally stable individuals. Implications for health are discussed.
People tend to respond with more positive than negative affect to mildly emotional stimuli (i.e.,... more People tend to respond with more positive than negative affect to mildly emotional stimuli (i.e., positivity offset) and respond more strongly to very negative than to matched positive stimuli (i.e., negativity bias). In the current study, the authors examine individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias and demonstrate that both are stable over time and generalize across different kinds of stimuli (e.g., pictures, sounds, words, games of chance). Furthermore, the positivity offset and negativity bias are not redundant with traditional personality measures and exhibit differential predictive validity, such that both types of measures predict behavior in meaningful ways. Implications for a comprehensive understanding of affect and emotion and their relationship to physical and mental health are discussed.
Though some models of emotion contend that happiness and sadness are mutually exclusive in experi... more Though some models of emotion contend that happiness and sadness are mutually exclusive in experience, recent findings suggest that adults can feel happy and sad at the same time in emotionally complex situations. Other research has shown that children develop a better conceptual understanding of mixed emotions as they grow older, but no research has examined children's actual experience of mixed emotions. To examine developmental differences in the experience of mixed emotions, we showed children ages 5 to 12 scenes from an animated film that culminated with a father and daughter's bittersweet farewell. In subsequent interviews, older children were more likely than younger children to report experiencing mixed emotions. These results suggest that in addition to having a better conceptual understanding of mixed emotions, older children are more likely than younger children to actually experience mixed emotions in emotionally complex situations.
The present study examined the development of children's ability report understanding and exp... more The present study examined the development of children's ability report understanding and experiencing allocentric mixed emotions, and explored the relation of gender and empathic ability to these skills. Participants (128 elementary school-aged children [63 boys, 65 girls]) were shown a movie clip with bittersweet themes to elicit mixed emotions. Findings from this study are consistent with prior research (Larsen, To, & Fireman, 2007), supporting a developmental progression in children's ability to both understand and report experiencing mixed emotions, with the two as distinct skills and children reporting understanding earlier than experiencing of emotions. Consistent with previous research, girls performed significantly better on the emotion experience task. Finally, results provided evidence that empathy partially mediates the relationship between age and reports of mixed emotion experience, but no evidence that empathy plays a role in mixed emotional understanding.
How do people feel when they experience bittersweet events comprised of pleasant and unpleasant a... more How do people feel when they experience bittersweet events comprised of pleasant and unpleasant aspects (e.g., good news accompanied by bad)? Just as acids immediately neutralize bases, some have suggested that bittersweet events' pleasant aspects might neutralize their unpleasant aspects, thereby resulting in fairly neutral emotional reactions. Some contemporary theorists also contend that happiness and sadness are mutually exclusive. We review research on the alternative possibility that bittersweet events can elicit pairs of opposite-valence, mixed emotions, with particularly close attention to the growing body of evidence that people can feel happy and sad at the same time while watching films, listening to music, and experiencing meaningful endings. We also review evidence that people sometimes experience other types of mixed emotions, including disgust accompanied by amusement and fear by enjoyment. Taken together, these data indicate that positive and negative affect are ...
The authors introduce the evaluative space grid (ESG), a two-dimensional grid that provides a sin... more The authors introduce the evaluative space grid (ESG), a two-dimensional grid that provides a single-item measure of positivity and negativity. In Study 1, ESG ratings of gamble outcomes were highly correlated with those obtained from conventional, less-efficient, unipolar measures, thus providing evidence for the grid’s convergent validity. In Study 2, participants rated their moment-by-moment evaluative reactions to gamble outcomes with the grid every 100 ms; results replicated earlier findings that some outcomes elicit only positivity or negativity whereas others simultaneously elicit positivity and negativity. In Studies 3 and 4, the difference between the grid’s positive and negative ratings of several types of stimuli and bipolar valence ratings were highly correlated, thus demonstrating the grid’s generalisability and predictive validity. Study 4 also showed that ESG ratings predicted facial electromyographic activity, particularly in tasks involving strongly affective stimul...
We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., ... more We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., frontal attacks) resulted in shortened estimations and were mediated by cognitive processes, and that judgments of threatening (e.g., angry) face pictures resulted in a smaller effect and did not seem cognitively mediated. In the present study, the effects of threatening scenes and faces were compared in two different tasks. An effect of threatening scene pictures occurred in a prediction-motion task, which putatively requires cognitive motion extrapolation, but not in a relative TTC judgment task, which was designed to be less reliant on cognitive processes. An effect of threatening face pictures did not occur in either task. We propose that an object's explicit potential of threat per se, and not only emotional valence, underlies the effect of threatening scenes on TTC judgments and that such an effect occurs only when the task allows sufficient cognitive processing. Results are co...
Evaluative processes have their roots in early evolutionary history, as survival is dependent on ... more Evaluative processes have their roots in early evolutionary history, as survival is dependent on an organism's ability to identify and respond appropriately to positive, rewarding or otherwise salubrious stimuli as well as to negative, noxious, or injurious stimuli. Consequently, evaluative processes are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and are represented at multiple levels of the nervous system, including the lowest levels of the neuraxis. While evolution has sculpted higher level evaluative systems into complex and sophisticated information-processing networks, they do not come to replace, but rather to interact with more primitive lower level representations. Indeed, there are basic features of the underlying neuroarchitectural plan for evaluative processes that are common across levels of organization-including that of evaluative bivalence.
The idea that group contexts can intensify emotions is centuries old. Yet, evidence that speaks t... more The idea that group contexts can intensify emotions is centuries old. Yet, evidence that speaks to how, or if, emotions become more intense in groups remains elusive. Here we examine the novel possibility that group attention-the experience of simultaneous coattention with one's group members-increases emotional intensity relative to attending alone, co-attending with strangers, or attending nonsimultaneously with one's group members. In Study 1, scary advertisements felt scarier under group attention. In Study 2, group attention intensified feelings of sadness to negative images, and feelings of happiness to positive images. In Study 3, group attention during a video depicting homelessness led to greater sadness that prompted larger donations to charities benefiting the homeless. In Studies 4 and 5, group attention increased the amount of cognitive resources allocated towards sad and amusing videos (as indexed by the percentage of thoughts referencing video content), leading to more sadness and happiness, respectively.
The structure of affective space has been debated for more than fifty years. Ac- cording to the m... more The structure of affective space has been debated for more than fifty years. Ac- cording to the model of evaluative space (Cacioppo & Berntson, 1994; Cacioppo, Gardner, & Berntson, 1997),thecommon metric governing approach /withdrawal is generally a single bipolar dimension at response stages that itself is the consequence of multiple operations, such as the activation function for positivity (appetition)
Experience sampling data reveal that people can experience mixed emotions (i.e., the co-occurrenc... more Experience sampling data reveal that people can experience mixed emotions (i.e., the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect) in daily life and that some pairs of oppositevalence emotions co-occur more often than others. Both experience sampling and laboratory data suggest that, not surprisingly, people often experience mixed emotions when dealing with complex events that can readily be appraised as having both pleasant and unpleasant aspects (e.g., events that foster the pursuit of one goal but thwart that of another). More intriguingly, some events that can only readily be appraised as having unpleasant aspects (e.g., heartbreaking film scenes depicting a character's death) can also elicit mixed emotions.
We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., ... more We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., frontal attacks) resulted in shortened estimations and were mediated by cognitive processes, and that judgments of threatening (e.g., angry) face pictures resulted in a smaller effect and did not seem cognitively mediated. In the present study, the effects of threatening scenes and faces were compared in two different tasks. An effect of threatening scene pictures occurred in a prediction-motion task, which putatively requires cognitive motion extrapolation, but not in a relative TTC judgment task, which was designed to be less reliant on cognitive processes. An effect of threatening face pictures did not occur in either task. We propose that an object's explicit potential of threat per se, and not only emotional valence, underlies the effect of threatening scenes on TTC judgments and that such an effect occurs only when the task allows sufficient cognitive processing. Results are consistent with distinctions between predator and social fear systems and different underlying physiological mechanisms. Not all threatening information elicits the same responses, and whether an effect occurs at all may depend on the task and the degree to which the task involves cognitive processes.
Counterfactual feelings of regret occur when people make comparisons between an actual outcome an... more Counterfactual feelings of regret occur when people make comparisons between an actual outcome and a better outcome that would have occurred under a different choice. We investigated the choices of individuals with damage to the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and the lateral orbital frontal cortex (LOFC) to see whether their emotional responses were sensitive to regret. Participants made choices between gambles, each with monetary outcomes. After every choice, subjects learned the consequences of both gambles and rated their emotional response to the outcome. Normal subjects and lesion control subjects tended to make better choices and reported post-decision emotions that were sensitive to regret comparisons. VMPFC patients tended to make worse choices, and, contrary to our predictions, they reported emotions that were sensitive to regret comparisons. In contrast, LOFC patients made better choices, but reported emotional reactions that were insensitive to regret comparisons. We suggest the VMPFC is involved in the association between choices and anticipated emotions that guide future choices, while the LOFC is involved in experienced emotions that follow choices, emotions that may signal the need for behavioral change.
The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (tim... more The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (time-to-collision, TTC) is crucial for any mobile animal. In the present study, we report three experiments examining whether higher level cognitive factors, represented by affective value of approaching objects, could affect judgments of TTC. A theory of TTC estimates based purely on the optical variable tau does not predict an influence of the affective value of an approaching object. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared TTC estimates of threatening and neutral pictures that approached our participants on a screen and disappeared from view before a collision would have occurred. Images were taken from the International Affective Picture System. Threatening pictures-in particular, the picture of a frontal attack-were judged to collide earlier than neutral pictures. In Experiment 3, the approaching stimuli were faces with different emotional expressions. TTC tended to be underestimated for angry faces. We discuss these results, considering the roles of affective and cognitive mechanisms modulating TTC estimation and general time perception.
Theories of the structure of affect make competing predictions about whether people can feel happ... more Theories of the structure of affect make competing predictions about whether people can feel happy and sad at the same time. Considerable evidence that happiness and sadness can co-occur has accumulated in the past 15 years, but holes in the case remain. I describe those holes and suggest strategies for testing them in future research. I also explore the possibility that the case may never be closed, in part because the competing hypotheses may not be entirely falsifiable. Fortunately, hypotheses need not be falsifiable to be useful. Research on mixed emotions has been generative and the body of research will continue to shed light on the structure of affect.
The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related brain potential elicited by error commissi... more The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related brain potential elicited by error commission and by presentation of feedback stimuli indicating incorrect performance. In this study, the authors report two experiments in which participants tried to learn to select between response options by trial and error, using feedback stimuli indicating monetary gains and losses. The results demonstrate that the amplitude of the ERN is determined by the value of the eliciting outcome relative to the range of outcomes possible, rather than by the objective value of the outcome. This result is discussed in terms of a recent theory that holds that the ERN reflects a reward prediction error signal associated with a neural system for reinforcement learning.
The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (tim... more The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (time-to-collision, TTC) is crucial for any mobile animal. In the present study, we report three experiments examining whether higher level cognitive factors, represented by affective value of approaching objects, could affect judgments of TTC. A theory of TTC estimates based purely on the optical variable tau does not predict an influence of the affective value of an approaching object. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared TTC estimates of threatening and neutral pictures that approached our participants on a screen and disappeared from view before a collision would have occurred. Images were taken from the International Affective Picture System. Threatening pictures-in particular, the picture of a frontal attack-were judged to collide earlier than neutral pictures. In Experiment 3, the approaching stimuli were faces with different emotional expressions. TTC tended to be underestimated for a...
In his now-classic research on inoculation theory, McGuire (1964) demonstrated that exposing peop... more In his now-classic research on inoculation theory, McGuire (1964) demonstrated that exposing people to an initial weak counterattitudinal message could lead to enhanced resistance to a subsequent stronger counterattitudinal message. More recently, research on the valence-framing effect (Bizer & Petty, 2005) demonstrated an alternative way to make attitudes more resistant. Simply framing a person's attitude negatively (i.e., in terms of a rejected position such as anti-Democrat) led to more resistance to an attack on that attitude than did framing the same attitude positively (i.e., in terms of a preferred position such as pro-Republican). Using an election context, the current research tested whether valence framing influences attitude resistance specifically or attitude strength more generally, providing insight into the effect's mechanism and generalizability. In two experiments, attitude valence was manipulated by framing a position either negatively or positively. Experi...
Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1954) proposed that "happiness is not having what you want, but wanti... more Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1954) proposed that "happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have" (p. 37). In two studies, we tested Schachtel's maxim by asking participants whether or not they had and the extent to which they wanted each of 52 material items. To quantify how much people wanted what they had, we identified what they had and the extent to which they wanted those things. To quantify how much people had what they wanted, we identified how much they wanted and whether or not they had each item. Both variables accounted for unique variance in happiness. Moreover, the extent to which people wanted what they had partially mediated effects of gratitude and maximization on happiness, and the extent to which they had what they wanted partially mediated the effect of maximization. Results indicate that happiness is both wanting what you have and having what you want.
Elevated neuroticism is associated with increased psychological reactivity to stressors. Research... more Elevated neuroticism is associated with increased psychological reactivity to stressors. Research on individual differences and physiological reactivity (e.g., electrodermal activity), however, has focused on clinical samples and measures of basal activity (e.g., nonspecific skin conductance responses) or responses to nonaffective stimuli. Surprisingly, there is a dearth of work on physiological reactivity to emotional stimuli as a function of neuroticism. Thus, the authors sought to examine the relationship between neuroticism and skin conductance reactivity to emotionally evocative pictures in a nonclinical sample. Individuals higher in neuroticism exhibited both greater skin conductance reactivity to emotional (and particularly aversive) pictures as well as more extended reactivity than did emotionally stable individuals. Implications for health are discussed.
People tend to respond with more positive than negative affect to mildly emotional stimuli (i.e.,... more People tend to respond with more positive than negative affect to mildly emotional stimuli (i.e., positivity offset) and respond more strongly to very negative than to matched positive stimuli (i.e., negativity bias). In the current study, the authors examine individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias and demonstrate that both are stable over time and generalize across different kinds of stimuli (e.g., pictures, sounds, words, games of chance). Furthermore, the positivity offset and negativity bias are not redundant with traditional personality measures and exhibit differential predictive validity, such that both types of measures predict behavior in meaningful ways. Implications for a comprehensive understanding of affect and emotion and their relationship to physical and mental health are discussed.
Though some models of emotion contend that happiness and sadness are mutually exclusive in experi... more Though some models of emotion contend that happiness and sadness are mutually exclusive in experience, recent findings suggest that adults can feel happy and sad at the same time in emotionally complex situations. Other research has shown that children develop a better conceptual understanding of mixed emotions as they grow older, but no research has examined children's actual experience of mixed emotions. To examine developmental differences in the experience of mixed emotions, we showed children ages 5 to 12 scenes from an animated film that culminated with a father and daughter's bittersweet farewell. In subsequent interviews, older children were more likely than younger children to report experiencing mixed emotions. These results suggest that in addition to having a better conceptual understanding of mixed emotions, older children are more likely than younger children to actually experience mixed emotions in emotionally complex situations.
The present study examined the development of children's ability report understanding and exp... more The present study examined the development of children's ability report understanding and experiencing allocentric mixed emotions, and explored the relation of gender and empathic ability to these skills. Participants (128 elementary school-aged children [63 boys, 65 girls]) were shown a movie clip with bittersweet themes to elicit mixed emotions. Findings from this study are consistent with prior research (Larsen, To, & Fireman, 2007), supporting a developmental progression in children's ability to both understand and report experiencing mixed emotions, with the two as distinct skills and children reporting understanding earlier than experiencing of emotions. Consistent with previous research, girls performed significantly better on the emotion experience task. Finally, results provided evidence that empathy partially mediates the relationship between age and reports of mixed emotion experience, but no evidence that empathy plays a role in mixed emotional understanding.
How do people feel when they experience bittersweet events comprised of pleasant and unpleasant a... more How do people feel when they experience bittersweet events comprised of pleasant and unpleasant aspects (e.g., good news accompanied by bad)? Just as acids immediately neutralize bases, some have suggested that bittersweet events' pleasant aspects might neutralize their unpleasant aspects, thereby resulting in fairly neutral emotional reactions. Some contemporary theorists also contend that happiness and sadness are mutually exclusive. We review research on the alternative possibility that bittersweet events can elicit pairs of opposite-valence, mixed emotions, with particularly close attention to the growing body of evidence that people can feel happy and sad at the same time while watching films, listening to music, and experiencing meaningful endings. We also review evidence that people sometimes experience other types of mixed emotions, including disgust accompanied by amusement and fear by enjoyment. Taken together, these data indicate that positive and negative affect are ...
The authors introduce the evaluative space grid (ESG), a two-dimensional grid that provides a sin... more The authors introduce the evaluative space grid (ESG), a two-dimensional grid that provides a single-item measure of positivity and negativity. In Study 1, ESG ratings of gamble outcomes were highly correlated with those obtained from conventional, less-efficient, unipolar measures, thus providing evidence for the grid’s convergent validity. In Study 2, participants rated their moment-by-moment evaluative reactions to gamble outcomes with the grid every 100 ms; results replicated earlier findings that some outcomes elicit only positivity or negativity whereas others simultaneously elicit positivity and negativity. In Studies 3 and 4, the difference between the grid’s positive and negative ratings of several types of stimuli and bipolar valence ratings were highly correlated, thus demonstrating the grid’s generalisability and predictive validity. Study 4 also showed that ESG ratings predicted facial electromyographic activity, particularly in tasks involving strongly affective stimul...
We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., ... more We previously reported that time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of threatening scene pictures (e.g., frontal attacks) resulted in shortened estimations and were mediated by cognitive processes, and that judgments of threatening (e.g., angry) face pictures resulted in a smaller effect and did not seem cognitively mediated. In the present study, the effects of threatening scenes and faces were compared in two different tasks. An effect of threatening scene pictures occurred in a prediction-motion task, which putatively requires cognitive motion extrapolation, but not in a relative TTC judgment task, which was designed to be less reliant on cognitive processes. An effect of threatening face pictures did not occur in either task. We propose that an object's explicit potential of threat per se, and not only emotional valence, underlies the effect of threatening scenes on TTC judgments and that such an effect occurs only when the task allows sufficient cognitive processing. Results are co...
Evaluative processes have their roots in early evolutionary history, as survival is dependent on ... more Evaluative processes have their roots in early evolutionary history, as survival is dependent on an organism's ability to identify and respond appropriately to positive, rewarding or otherwise salubrious stimuli as well as to negative, noxious, or injurious stimuli. Consequently, evaluative processes are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and are represented at multiple levels of the nervous system, including the lowest levels of the neuraxis. While evolution has sculpted higher level evaluative systems into complex and sophisticated information-processing networks, they do not come to replace, but rather to interact with more primitive lower level representations. Indeed, there are basic features of the underlying neuroarchitectural plan for evaluative processes that are common across levels of organization-including that of evaluative bivalence.
The idea that group contexts can intensify emotions is centuries old. Yet, evidence that speaks t... more The idea that group contexts can intensify emotions is centuries old. Yet, evidence that speaks to how, or if, emotions become more intense in groups remains elusive. Here we examine the novel possibility that group attention-the experience of simultaneous coattention with one's group members-increases emotional intensity relative to attending alone, co-attending with strangers, or attending nonsimultaneously with one's group members. In Study 1, scary advertisements felt scarier under group attention. In Study 2, group attention intensified feelings of sadness to negative images, and feelings of happiness to positive images. In Study 3, group attention during a video depicting homelessness led to greater sadness that prompted larger donations to charities benefiting the homeless. In Studies 4 and 5, group attention increased the amount of cognitive resources allocated towards sad and amusing videos (as indexed by the percentage of thoughts referencing video content), leading to more sadness and happiness, respectively.
The structure of affective space has been debated for more than fifty years. Ac- cording to the m... more The structure of affective space has been debated for more than fifty years. Ac- cording to the model of evaluative space (Cacioppo & Berntson, 1994; Cacioppo, Gardner, & Berntson, 1997),thecommon metric governing approach /withdrawal is generally a single bipolar dimension at response stages that itself is the consequence of multiple operations, such as the activation function for positivity (appetition)
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Papers by Jeff Larsen