Empathic concern motivates willingness to help in the absence of interdependence

Previous research suggests that empathic concern selectively promotes motivation to help those with whom we typically have interdependent relationships, such as friends or siblings, rather than strangers or acquaintances. In a sample of U.S. participants (collected between 2018 and 2020), our studies not only confirmed the finding that empathic concern is directed somewhat more strongly toward interdependent relationship partners, but also showed cross-sectionally (Studies 1a-1b), and when manipulating target distress experimentally (Study 2), that empathic concern predicts higher willingness to help only when people perceive low interdependence in their relationship with the target. In Study 3, we manipulated perceived interdependence with an acquaintance via shared fate, and found that empathic concern only predicted helping motivation when we reduced shared fate, but not when we increased shared fate. These results suggest that when people perceive high interdependence in their relationships, shared fate is the driving force behind their desire to help, whereas when people perceive low interdependence with someone in need, empathic concern motivates them to help. A relationship-building perspective on empathic concern provides avenues for testing additional moderators, including those related to target-specific characteristics and culture and ecology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation

Stressful experiences frequently lead to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, high in sugar and fat yet low in nutrients. Can emotion regulation help break this link? In a laboratory experiment (N = 200), participants were encouraged to ruminate on a current, distressing personal problem, followed by instruction to use a specific emotion regulation strategy for managing feelings around that problem (challenge appraisal, relaxation/distraction, imagined social support, no-instruction control). Participants then spent 15 min on an anagram task in which 80% of items were unsolvable-a frustrating situation offering a second, implicit opportunity to use the regulation strategy. During the anagram task they had free access to a snack basket containing various options. Analyses revealed significant differences among regulation conditions in consumption of candy versus healthy snack options; challenge appraisal led to the healthiest snack choices, imagined social support to the least healthy snack choices.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5.

Funny Date, Creative Mate? Unpacking the Effect of Humor on Romantic Attraction

Extensive research shows that people are attracted to funny dating partners, with several competing, sometimes conflicting, explanations for why humor is strongly desired in a mate. The present research asks whether humor is interpreted as a reliable, hard-to-fake indicator of some other, valuable trait. Across six experiments, we manipulated humor in a hypothetical date, online dating profile, or video profile and asked which of several traits statistically linked to humor are reliably inferred about funny partners. Humor-specifically partners producing humor-consistently led to higher ratings of partner creative ingenuity. This effect was not moderated by gender, and mediated desirability for different types of partnership. Results further revealed stronger preference for a first-date activity requiring creative ingenuity with a funny versus non-funny partner. Humor may signal that a potential partner is skilled at creative problem-solving, which may be particularly important when considering various forms of partnership.

The Future of Affective Science: Introduction to the Special Issue

Modern affective science-the empirical study of emotional responding and affective experience-has been active for a half-century. The Future of Affective Science special issue considers the history of this field and proposes new directions for the decades ahead. Contributors represent diverse theoretical perspectives, methodological expertise, and domains of study, and the special issue includes both literature reviews and new empirical studies as illustrations. This introductory article synthesizes the contributions, articulating the broader context of the current status of our field and highlighting common themes across articles as well as gaps notable even in this special issue. Sections of the article address theoretical and conceptual issues, research methodology, the questions we ask, and translation of basic affective science to applied domains. We conclude that much has been learned from the first 50 years of affective science, and it is now time for new theories, new research questions, and innovative methods for the decades ahead.

Fulfilling the Promise of Well-Being Science: the Quest for Conceptual and Measurement Precision

Research on well-being has grown exponentially in the last 30 years, employing a variety of constructs and operational measures to produce a wealth of empirical research. This has led to a rich and high-impact, yet somewhat fragmented body of work. The target article by Park and colleagues initiates a valuable conversation aimed at converging on a shared conceptual definition of well-being. A rigorous program of further theoretical analysis and new research is needed to identify the boundaries as well as the core of well-being, and to document facets that are both statistically distinct and meaningful. The resulting conceptual clarity and measurement precision will facilitate mechanism-level research on causes and consequences of well-being, providing a strong foundation for scalable interventions.

Within- and between-group heterogeneity in cultural models of emotion among people of European, Asian, and Latino heritage in the United States

Research on cultural variation in emotion values and beliefs has usually explained this variation in terms of individualism and collectivism, typically comparing European American against East Asian cultural contexts. This study examined emotion model variability across as well as within cultural contexts in a large sample of young adults of Latino heritage along with people of European and East Asian heritage. Using latent class analysis, we characterized and predicted endorsement of emotion models, distinguishing emotion ideals (the emotions one desires) from beliefs about injunctive norms for emotion (the emotions one believes are appropriate). Students from three universities in different regions of the United States (N = 1,618; 490 of European heritage, 463 of Asian heritage, 665 of Latino heritage) provided data on the desirability and appropriateness of experiencing 19 specific emotions in daily life, as well as their U.S. cultural orientation and sociodemographic characteristics. Four distinct classes/models of emotion desirability and four classes/models of emotion appropriateness emerged. Latent class regression demonstrated that endorsement of emotion models was systematically related to heritage group membership and mainstream cultural orientation. Findings suggest meaningful within-group heterogeneity in emotion models and highlight the ways in which emotion models among people of Latino heritage are both similar to and distinct from models among people of European and Asian heritage. By developing a more nuanced understanding of between- and within-group variation in emotion models and highlighting the Latin American form of collectivism as in need of further research, this study advances cultural psychology, affective science, and their integration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Shades of expansiveness: Postural expression of dominance, high-arousal positive affect, and warmth

In addition to the face, bodily posture plays an important role in communicating affective states. Postural expansion-how much space the body takes up-has been much studied as expressing and signaling dominance and pride. The present research aimed to expand research on the range of affect dimensions and affect-laden personality characteristics that are expressed via expansiveness, investigating specific forms of expansiveness and their interactions with other postural elements (e.g., arm position). Using an innovative expression-production method, Study 1 (N = 146) characterized full-body expressions of dominance, joy, hope, and awe; results indicated joy is communicated most expansively and suggested a signature arm position for most feelings. Studies 2 and 3 (Ns = 352 and 183) revealed that other postural features interact with expansiveness to signal dominance (arms akimbo, head raised, stability), as distinct from high-arousal positive affect (arms high up, head raised) and warmth (arms high up, head raised, instability). Together, this research adds needed data on full-body expressions of positive affect states and provides systematic analysis of different affective messages and varieties of postural expansiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Awe, wonder, and the human mind

The human mind is unique in its ability to form, store, and manipulate elaborate conceptual models of the world; yet these models have vast, inevitable gaps. Where the models end, the potential for wonder and awe begins. Psychology research has begun to uncover distinctive implications of awe for how we perceive our environment and ourselves. More science investigating basic features of awe is needed to fulfill its promise for improving the human experience. Awe, accessible in everyday life, can be a valuable tool for enhancing well-being.

Positive emotion dispositions and emotion regulation in the Italian population

The goal of this large-scale study was to test the relationship between positive emotion dispositions (i.e., Joy, Contentment, Pride, Love, Compassion, Amusement, and Awe) and two strategies of emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the Italian population. 532 Italian-speaking adults completed the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scales (DPES), the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule (PANAS), the Italian Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Big-Five Inventory (BFI). DPES scales showed high reliability. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that a 6-factor model fits the Italian sample better. Joy and Contentment loaded on the same factor. Items assessing the other five emotions loaded on separate factors. The patterns of relationships between positive emotion dispositions, positive and negative affects traits (PANAS), and personality traits (BFI) indicated concurrent validity of the DPES. Twelve separated multiple regression models with BFI and ERQ factors as predictors and DPES factors as response variables showed that Extraversion significantly positively predicted of all DPES emotions. Agreeableness predicted Happiness, Love, Compassion, and Awe positively. Conscientiousness predicted Amusement and Love negatively and Compassion, Pride, and Happiness positively. Neuroticism predicted all emotions negatively except for Compassion. Positive emotions were significantly and positively predicted by reappraisal, and negatively predicted by suppression.

Effects of Therapeutic Intervention on Parentally Bereaved Children's Emotion Reactivity and Regulation 15 Years Later

The Family Bereavement Program (FBP) is a family-based intervention for parentally bereaved children and surviving caregivers. Results are reported of a randomized controlled trial, examining intervention effects on emotional reactivity and regulation of young adults who participated in the program 15 years earlier. Participants (N = 152) completed four emotion challenge tasks: reactivity to negative images, detached reappraisal while viewing negative images, positive reappraisal while viewing negative images, and reengagement with positive images. Outcomes included cardiac interbeat interval (IBI), pre-ejection period (PEP), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as well as self-reported emotional experience and regulation effectiveness. Direct intervention effects and effects mediated through improved parenting were estimated. Several significant effects were observed in primary analyses; however, none remained significant after correction for familywise Type I error. Parenting mediated FBP effects on IBI during negative reactivity (b = 15.04), and on RSA during positive reengagement (b = 0.35); the latter effect was accounted for by changes in breathing. Intervention condition was a direct predictor of self-reported detached reappraisal effectiveness (b = 1.00). Intervention and gender interacted in predicting self-reported negative emotion during the negative reactivity (b = 1.04) and positive reappraisal tasks (b = 1.31) such that intervention-condition men reported more negative emotions during those tasks. Although these findings should be considered preliminary given the limited power of the corrected statistical tests, they suggest long-term effects of family intervention following the death of a parent on offspring's emotional reactivity and regulation ability that should be pursued further in future research.

Who emphasizes positivity? An exploration of emotion values in people of Latino, Asian, and European heritage living in the United States

Emotion values vary within and between individualistic and collectivistic cultural contexts. The form of collectivism prevalent in Latin America emphasizes simpatía, a cultural model that stresses the relational benefits of positivity but also the costs of negativity. This model was predicted to engender a pattern of emotion values distinct from that of the more commonly studied collectivist group, people of Asian heritage (PAH), among whom an emphasis on moderating positive and negative emotions is typically observed, and from people of European heritage (PEH), among whom authenticity in emotions is typically valued. College students of Latino (n = 659), Asian (n = 446), and European (n = 456) heritage living in the United States completed a study examining positive and negative emotion values. Mixed-model analysis of variance that included interactions among culture, emotion valence (positive, negative), value type (desirability, appropriateness), and response type (experience, expression) suggested distinct patterns of emotion values across groups. People of Latino heritage (PLH) rated positive emotions as more desirable and appropriate to experience and express than PAH (ps < .001) but less desirable and appropriate to experience and express than PEH (ps ≤ .001). PLH also rated negative emotions as more undesirable (ps < .001) but similarly inappropriate to experience and express (ps > .05) compared with PAH and as similarly undesirable (ps > .05) but more inappropriate to experience (p < .001) compared with PEH. The emotion-value pattern that emerged was largely consistent with simpatía for PLH and provides new evidence of similarity and variation in emotion values in three distinct contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion recognition in objects in patients with neurological disease

OBJECTIVE

Considerable research indicates that individuals with dementia have deficits in the ability to recognize emotion in other people. The present study examined ability to detect emotional qualities of objects.

METHOD

Fifty-two patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 18 patients awaiting surgery for intractable epilepsy, and 159 healthy controls completed a newly developed test of ability to recognize emotional qualities of art (music and paintings), and pleasantness in simple sensory stimuli (tactile, olfactory, auditory), and to make aesthetic judgments (geometric shapes, room décor). A subset of participants also completed a test of ability to recognize emotions in other people.

RESULTS

Patients with FTD showed a marked deficit in ability to recognize the emotions conveyed in art, compared with both healthy individuals and patients with AD (relative to controls, deficits in patients with AD only approached significance). This deficit remained robust after controlling for FTD patients' ability to recognize pleasantness in simple sensory stimuli, make aesthetic judgments, identify odors, and identify emotions in other people. Neither FTD nor AD patients showed deficits in recognizing pleasant sensory stimuli or making aesthetic judgments. Exploratory analysis of patients with epilepsy revealed no deficits in any of these domains.

CONCLUSION

Patients with FTD (but not AD) showed a significant, specific deficit in ability to interpret emotional messages in art, echoing FTD-related deficits in recognizing emotions in other people. This finding adds to our understanding of the impact these diseases have on the lives of patients and their caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Responding to the emotions of others: Age differences in facial expressions and age-specific associations with relational connectedness

Responding prosocially to the emotion of others may become increasingly important in late life, especially as partners and friends encounter a growing number of losses, challenges, and declines. Facial expressions are important avenues for communicating empathy and concern, and for signaling that help is forthcoming when needed. In a study of young, middle-aged, and older adults, we measured emotional responses (facial expressions, subjective experience, and physiological activation) to a sad, distressing film clip and a happy, uplifting film clip. Results revealed that, relative to younger adults, older adults showed more sadness and confusion/concern facial expressions during the distressing film clip. Moreover, for older adults only, more sadness and fewer disgust facial expressions during the distressing film clip were associated with higher levels of relational connectedness. These findings remained stable when accounting for subjective emotional experience, physiological activation, and trait empathy in response to the film clip. When examining the uplifting film clip, older adults showed more happiness facial expressions relative to younger adults at trend levels. More facial expressions of happiness were associated with higher levels of relational connectedness, but unlike the effect of sadness expressions, this was not moderated by age. These findings underscore an important adaptive social function of facial expressions-particularly in response to the distress of others-in late life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Comment: The Science of Positive Emotion: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby/There’s Still a Long Way to Go

After decades of neglect, positive emotion is now the focus of a rich, diverse, and rapidly growing field. Basic research has advanced understanding of positive emotions’ neural mechanisms, nonverbal expression, and implications for cognition and motivation, with increasing appreciation of positive emotion differentiation, as well as cultural and contextual moderators of positive emotions’ effects. Much research has also addressed ways positive emotions can be leveraged to improve the human condition, and the mechanisms by which interventions have beneficial effects. As always, new knowledge raises more questions, and we still have a long way to go before the promise of this field can be fully realized. This comment reviews major developments in positive emotion science and offers recommendations for the future.

Going off script: Effects of awe on memory for script-typical and -irrelevant narrative detail

People often filter their experience of new events through knowledge they already have; for example, encoding new events by relying on prototypical event "scripts" at the expense of actual details. Previous research suggests that positive affect often increases this tendency. Three studies assessed whether awe-an emotion elicited by perceived vastness, and thought to promote cognitive accommodation-has the opposite effect, reducing rather than increasing reliance on event scripts. True/false questions on details of a short story about a romantic dinner were used to determine whether awe (a) reduces the tendency to impute script-consistent but false details into memory, and/or (b) promotes memory of unexpected details. Across studies we consistently found support for the first effect; evidence for the second was less consistent. Effects were partially mediated by subjective awe, and independent of other aspects of subjective affect. Results suggest that awe reduces reliance on internal knowledge in processing new events. (PsycINFO Database Record

Short alleles, bigger smiles? The effect of 5-HTTLPR on positive emotional expressions

The present research examined the effect of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene on objectively coded positive emotional expressions (i.e., laughing and smiling behavior objectively coded using the Facial Action Coding System). Three studies with independent samples of participants were conducted. Study 1 examined young adults watching still cartoons. Study 2 examined young, middle-aged, and older adults watching a thematically ambiguous yet subtly amusing film clip. Study 3 examined middle-aged and older spouses discussing an area of marital conflict (that typically produces both positive and negative emotion). Aggregating data across studies, results showed that the short allele of 5-HTTLPR predicted heightened positive emotional expressions. Results remained stable when controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and depressive symptoms. These findings are consistent with the notion that the short allele of 5-HTTLPR functions as an emotion amplifier, which may confer heightened susceptibility to environmental conditions.

An insecure base: Attachment style and orienting response to positive stimuli

In adults as in infants, psychological attachment to close others provides a "secure base" for exploration and pursuit of opportunities. Insecure attachment is likely to interfere with this function. The present study examined the association of individual differences in adult attachment style with peripheral physiological measures of automatic orienting to several kinds of positive, rewarding stimuli. Attachment style was largely unrelated to extent of heart rate deceleration in response to the appearance of positive emotion-eliciting images. However, attachment avoidance was associated with reduced skin conductance responding to the onset of several kinds of positive stimuli. These findings suggest that working models of relationships with close others have complex implications for the early stages of responding to opportunities for reward presented by the environment.

Turn down the volume or change the channel? Emotional effects of detached versus positive reappraisal

Cognitive reappraisal, or changing one's interpretation of an event in order to alter the emotional response to it, is thought to be a healthy and an effective emotion regulation strategy. Although researchers recognize several distinct varieties of reappraisal, few studies have explicitly compared the effects of multiple reappraisal strategies on emotional responding. The present study compares the effects of detached and positive reappraisal on thought content, subjective emotional experience, physiological reactivity, and facial expressions of emotion while viewing film clips evoking sadness and disgust. Although both forms of reappraisal reduced overall emotional responding to unpleasant stimuli, the effects of detached reappraisal were stronger in this regard, and positive reappraisal was more likely to maintain subjective experience and facial expression of stimulus-appropriate positive emotions. The two reappraisal strategies also produced somewhat different profiles of physiological responding. Differences between detached and positive reappraisal with respect to subjective experience and facial expression were more pronounced among men than women; the reverse was true for differences with respect to physiological responding. Beyond these effects on individual emotion response systems, detached and positive reappraisal also had somewhat different effects on coherence in change across response systems. Implications for our understanding of emotion regulation processes, and for emotion theory more broadly, are discussed.

Anger and sadness in response to an emotionally neutral film: evidence for age-specific associations with well-being

When the association between emotion and well-being is being considered, positive emotions usually come to mind. However, negative emotions serve important adaptive functions and particular negative emotions may be especially adaptive at different stages of adult development. We examined the associations between self-reported negative emotions in response to an emotionally neutral, thematically ambiguous film and subjective well-being among 76 young (age 20-29), 73 middle-aged (age 40-49), and 73 older (age 60-69) adults. Results indicated that higher self-reported anger in response to the film was associated with higher well-being for middle-aged adults, but not for young and older adults. Higher self-reported sadness in response to the film was associated with higher well-being for older adults, but not for young and middle-aged adults. These findings were stronger for cognitive well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life) than for affective well-being (i.e., ratio of dispositional positive to negative affect) and were specific to these emotions (not found for self-reported disgust or fear) and to the emotionally neutral film (not found for sad or disgusting films). Results are discussed in terms of the functions that anger and sadness are thought to serve and the control opportunities afforded in midlife and late life that render these functions differentially adaptive.

Greater sadness reactivity in late life

Although previous research suggests that overall emotional reactivity does not change with normal aging, it is possible that different emotions follow different developmental courses. We examined emotional reactivity to films selected to elicit sadness, disgust, and a neutral state in young, middle-aged and older adults (total N = 222). Physiology and expressive behavior were measured continuously and reports of subjective emotional experience were obtained following each film. Results indicated that older adults reported greater sadness in response to all films and greater physiological responses to the sadness film than did the younger age groups. There were no age differences found in self-reported disgust or in behavioral expressions of sadness or disgust in response to any film. The age differences that were found were maintained even after controlling for pre-film self-reported sadness and for personal experiences of loss. These findings support the notion that sadness reactivity is heightened with age.

Influence of different positive emotions on persuasion processing: a functional evolutionary approach

Much research has found that positive affect facilitates increased reliance on heuristics in cognition. However, theories proposing distinct evolutionary fitness-enhancing functions for specific positive emotions also predict important differences among the consequences of different positive emotion states. Two experiments investigated how six positive emotions influenced the processing of persuasive messages. Using different methods to induce emotions and assess processing, we showed that the positive emotions of anticipatory enthusiasm, amusement, and attachment love tended to facilitate greater acceptance of weak persuasive messages (consistent with previous research), whereas the positive emotions of awe and nurturant love reduced persuasion by weak messages. In addition, a series of mediation analyses suggested that the effects distinguishing different positive emotions from a neutral control condition were best accounted for by different mediators rather than by one common mediator. These findings build upon approaches that link affective valence to certain types of processing, documenting emotion-specific effects on cognition that are consistent with functional evolutionary accounts of discrete positive emotions.

Effects of aging on experimentally instructed detached reappraisal, positive reappraisal, and emotional behavior suppression

Emotion regulation includes multiple strategies that rely on different underlying abilities and that may be affected differently by aging. We assessed young, middle-aged, and older adults' ability to implement 3 emotion regulation strategies (detached reappraisal, positive reappraisal, and behavior suppression) in a laboratory setting, using standardized emotional stimuli and a multimethod approach to assessing regulation success. Results revealed age-related decline in ability to implement detached reappraisal, enhancement of ability to implement positive reappraisal, and maintenance of ability to implement behavior suppression. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for emotion theory and for promoting successful aging.

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia is associated with tonic positive emotionality

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSAREST) indexes important aspects of individual differences in emotionality. In the present investigation, the authors address whether RSAREST is associated with tonic positive or negative emotionality, and whether RSAREST relates to phasic emotional responding to discrete positive emotion-eliciting stimuli. Across an 8-month, multiassessment study of first-year university students (n = 80), individual differences in RSAREST were associated with positive but not negative tonic emotionality, assessed at the level of personality traits, long-term moods, the disposition toward optimism, and baseline reports of current emotional states. RSAREST was not related to increased positive emotion, or stimulus-specific emotion, in response to compassion-, awe-, or pride-inducing stimuli. These findings suggest that resting RSA indexes aspects of a person's tonic positive emotionality.

Context matters: the benefits and costs of expressing positive emotion among survivors of childhood sexual abuse

Positive emotions promote adjustment to aversive life events. However, evolutionary theory and empirical research on trauma disclosure suggest that in the context of stigmatized events, expressing positive emotions might incur social costs. To test this thesis, the authors coded genuine (Duchenne) smiling and laughter and also non-Duchenne smiling from videotapes of late-adolescent and young adult women, approximately half with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as they described the most distressing event of their lives. Consistent with previous studies, genuine positive emotional expression was generally associated with better social adjustment two years later. However, as anticipated, CSA survivors who expressed positive emotion in the context of describing a past CSA experience had poorer long-term social adjustment, whereas CSA survivors who expressed positive emotion while describing a nonabuse experience had improved social adjustment. These findings suggest that the benefits of positive emotional expression may often be context specific.

Silver linings and candles in the dark: differences among positive coping strategies in predicting subjective well-being

Ideal coping strategies enhance positive aspects of well-being as well as reduce distress. Although researchers have identified several "positive coping" strategies, it is unclear which are most strongly associated with well-being or whether all strategies are equally appropriate for all kinds of stressors. Participants completed well-being measures, and described the most negative event of the day and their emotion regulation strategies for the next 7 days. Dispositional use of positive emotion-inducing coping strategies was most strongly associated with positive aspects of well-being. Use of positive coping did not decrease with increased objective stress during the week, and use of particular strategies was partly predicted by the types of stressors that were reported. Implications for theories of positive coping are discussed.

New displays and new emotions: a commentary on Rozin and Cohen (2003)

In this article, the authors elaborate on 3 ideas advanced in P. Rozin and A. B. Cohen's (2003) innovative study of facial expression. Taking a cue from their discovery of new expressive behaviors (e.g., the narrowed eyebrows), the authors review recent studies showing that emotions are conveyed in more channels than usually studied, including posture, gaze patterns, voice, and touch. Building on their claim that confusion has a distinct display, the authors review evidence showing distinct displays for 3 self-conscious emotions (embarrassment, shame, and pride), 5 positive emotions (amusement, desire, happiness, love, interest), and sympathy and compassion. Finally, the authors offer a functional definition of emotion to integrate these findings on "new" displays and emotions.