Disentangling three valence-related dimensions of emotion valuation: The good, the pleasant, and the desirable.

Abstract

People place value on emotion categories that inform which emotions to cultivate and which to regulate in life. Here, we examined how people's beliefs about emotion categories varied along three valence-related dimensions: evaluation (good, bad), hedonic feeling (pleasure, displeasure), and desirability (want to feel, do not want to feel). In Studies 1A and 1B, we found that evaluative (good/bad) and hedonic (pleasant/unpleasant) ratings were distinct for certain emotions including lust, anger, shame, fear, and guilt. In Study 2, we found that emotion valuation depended on cultural background in a sample of Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans. Overall, Asian American participants evaluated certain emotions (including, but not limited to, anger, sadness, guilt, and shame) more positively than Caucasian American participants, and this difference was more pronounced on the evaluative rating dimension. Finally, in Study 3, we examined how evaluative and hedonic dimensions further relate with the desire to experience certain emotions and the emotions that people believe they feel in everyday life. Our findings support a model in which evaluative and hedonic dimensions of emotion valuation predict desired emotional states, which in turn predicts beliefs about the reported frequency of emotions experienced in everyday life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).