Emotion tracking (vs. reporting) increases the persistence of positive (vs. negative) emotions

Abstract

There is an emerging use of devices and wearables for tracking a variety of daily behaviors such as sleep quality and calorie counts. While tracking such behavior has proven to be beneficial for physical health, less is known about the benefits of tracking mental health. This paper examines the impact of tracking daily emotions on emotional and subjective well-being. Two longitudinal studies (N = 1025) show that tracking people's emotions (i.e., reporting and reminding participants of their past emotions) has an asymmetric persistence effect, such that positive (but not negative) emotions are more likely to linger the next day. The results shed light on the importance and benefits of tracking emotions for improving consumers' mental health.