Conveying depression: Is a reduced relative preference for happiness a way depressed people convince themselves of their depressed identity?

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals who are more depressed show a reduced preference for happy over sad stimuli. Researchers have proffered various features of depression that might produce a genuine reduced preference for happy vs. sad stimuli. Here, in line with an identity maintenance perspective on depression, we posited that this reduced relative preference is, in part, used to communicate a more depressed identity. Method: In a preregistered experiment, nonclinical participants (N = 508) completed a dimensional measure of depression and rated their preferences for happy and sad images. We manipulated the extent to which a relative preference for happy (vs. sad) images could be used to seem depressed (happy-preference-is-depressed preference framing) or vice versa (sad-preference-is-depressed preference framing). Results: People with elevated depression showed a reduced preference for happy over sad images in the sad-vs. happy-preference-is-depressed preference framing, and people with low depression showed the opposite effect. These effects persisted after controlling for sex and could not be attributed to demand. Depression also related positively to rating oneself as being depressed, and mediation evidence suggested that the strategic alteration of preferences on the image viewing task partly drove these judgments. Discussion: Consistent with an identity maintenance perspective, the data suggest that hedonic preferences associated with depression may be driven, in part, by the desire to signal one's own depression levels.