Sara Velazquez, Meghan Whalen, Abigail Beech, Eugenia Zhukovsky, Nur Akpolat, M Alexandra Kredlow
Dispositional cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation skill that involves reframing thoughts about a situation to improve emotional responses, may be an important factor in predicting response to cognitive restructuring. This study examines whether dispositional cognitive reappraisal skills are associated with the efficacy of a lab-based cognitive restructuring manipulation in reducing physiological conditioned fear responses. Psychiatrically healthy participants (n = 107) completed fear acquisition on Day 1, followed by a cognitive restructuring manipulation or control task on Day 2 and a test of physiological fear responses and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire on Day 3. A significant interaction between manipulation and dispositional cognitive reappraisal skills was observed (p < .05). Specifically, among participants who completed the lab-based cognitive restructuring manipulation, participants with low reappraisal skills showed greater decreases in conditioned fear responses than participants with high reappraisal skills. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and determine whether they would extend to clinical populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"The relationship between dispositional cognitive reappraisal and the efficacy of a cognitive restructuring manipulation following fear conditioning.","authors":"Sara Velazquez, Meghan Whalen, Abigail Beech, Eugenia Zhukovsky, Nur Akpolat, M Alexandra Kredlow","doi":"10.1037/emo0001649","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001649","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Dispositional cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation skill that involves reframing thoughts about a situation to improve emotional responses, may be an important factor in predicting response to cognitive restructuring. This study examines whether dispositional cognitive reappraisal skills are associated with the efficacy of a lab-based cognitive restructuring manipulation in reducing physiological conditioned fear responses. Psychiatrically healthy participants (<i>n</i> = 107) completed fear acquisition on Day 1, followed by a cognitive restructuring manipulation or control task on Day 2 and a test of physiological fear responses and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire on Day 3. A significant interaction between manipulation and dispositional cognitive reappraisal skills was observed (<i>p</i> < .05). Specifically, among participants who completed the lab-based cognitive restructuring manipulation, participants with low reappraisal skills showed greater decreases in conditioned fear responses than participants with high reappraisal skills. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and determine whether they would extend to clinical populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146087238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gabriella Silva, Haya Fatimah, Marina Bornovalova, Jonathan A Rottenberg, Fallon R Goodman
Although rejection is a universal human experience, the short- and long-term social and emotional consequences of naturally occurring rejection are understudied. Using two experience-sampling designs, we delineated the concurrent and prospective sequelae of rejection. Study 1 used daily diary data collected in 2020 to examine how rejection experiences predicted daily emotional well-being and social motivation in 269 participants (age range = 18-73) screened for social anxiety and/or depression symptoms. Study 2 used denser, within-day sampling via ecological momentary assessment data collected in 2021 and multivariate, temporal network analyses to examine the direct and indirect effects of rejection on socioemotional factors in 96 participants (age range = 18-66) with and without social anxiety disorder. In Study 1, feeling rejected during daily social interactions predicted same-day increases in negative emotions (i.e., sadness, anger, irritability), decreases in approach motivation, and increases in avoidance motivation, but none of these effects persisted to the next day. In Study 2, feeling rejected concurrently and temporally predicted increased negative emotions (i.e., loneliness, sadness, embarrassment, hurt, anger, and irritability) and desire to be alone. Temporal network analyses yielded evidence of direct and indirect feedback loops between rejection and feeling hurt and angry that might maintain a cycle of negative affect and rejection feelings. Sensitivity analyses indicated that social anxiety moderated some reciprocal effects between rejection and social motivation. Together, these findings shed new light on the potency of naturally occurring rejection and why its consequences can be so difficult to counteract. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"The emotional and motivational aftermath of everyday rejection.","authors":"Gabriella Silva, Haya Fatimah, Marina Bornovalova, Jonathan A Rottenberg, Fallon R Goodman","doi":"10.1037/emo0001627","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001627","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although rejection is a universal human experience, the short- and long-term social and emotional consequences of naturally occurring rejection are understudied. Using two experience-sampling designs, we delineated the concurrent and prospective sequelae of rejection. Study 1 used daily diary data collected in 2020 to examine how rejection experiences predicted daily emotional well-being and social motivation in 269 participants (age range = 18-73) screened for social anxiety and/or depression symptoms. Study 2 used denser, within-day sampling via ecological momentary assessment data collected in 2021 and multivariate, temporal network analyses to examine the direct and indirect effects of rejection on socioemotional factors in 96 participants (age range = 18-66) with and without social anxiety disorder. In Study 1, feeling rejected during daily social interactions predicted same-day increases in negative emotions (i.e., sadness, anger, irritability), decreases in approach motivation, and increases in avoidance motivation, but none of these effects persisted to the next day. In Study 2, feeling rejected concurrently and temporally predicted increased negative emotions (i.e., loneliness, sadness, embarrassment, hurt, anger, and irritability) and desire to be alone. Temporal network analyses yielded evidence of direct and indirect feedback loops between rejection and feeling hurt and angry that might maintain a cycle of negative affect and rejection feelings. Sensitivity analyses indicated that social anxiety moderated some reciprocal effects between rejection and social motivation. Together, these findings shed new light on the potency of naturally occurring rejection and why its consequences can be so difficult to counteract. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146087242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alexandrija Zikic, Maya Reingold, Jonas P Nitschke, Katya Santucci, Erin P Macdonald, Jennifer A Bartz, Lauren J Human, Melanie A Dirks
Empathic accuracy-the ability to infer others' emotions accurately-is associated with positive social functioning. To be empathically accurate, individuals must base their inferences on accurate cues. Consequently, expressive accuracy-the extent to which individuals accurately communicate their self-reported affect-may be a constraint on others' empathic accuracy. Though affective communication involves both perceivers (i.e., those who make inferences) and targets (i.e., those being judged), prior research has focused on perceivers. Here, we examined the relative contribution of perceivers and targets to explaining variance in empathic accuracy and the association between targets' expressive accuracy and perceivers' empathic accuracy. Data from 137 same-gender friend dyads were collected between 2018 and 2020. After engaging in a supportive interaction, participants watched videos and rated their own and their friend's affect during the conversation. Empathic accuracy was the correlation between participants' inferences of friends' affect and friends' reports of their own affect. Between 2022 and 2023, six to 10 external raters watched the videos and inferred participants' affect, providing additional empathic accuracy scores. Expressive accuracy was indexed as how accurately each participant's affect was read by the external raters on average. Targets (participants) explained more variance in empathic accuracy scores than perceivers (external raters), and participants' expressive accuracy positively predicted friends' empathic accuracy, even after controlling for emotional expressivity. Results suggest that expressing affect accurately may be a key component of affective communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"Express yourself: Emotional expressive accuracy in a supportive interaction between friends.","authors":"Alexandrija Zikic, Maya Reingold, Jonas P Nitschke, Katya Santucci, Erin P Macdonald, Jennifer A Bartz, Lauren J Human, Melanie A Dirks","doi":"10.1037/emo0001646","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001646","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Empathic accuracy-the ability to infer others' emotions accurately-is associated with positive social functioning. To be empathically accurate, individuals must base their inferences on accurate cues. Consequently, expressive accuracy-the extent to which individuals accurately communicate their self-reported affect-may be a constraint on others' empathic accuracy. Though affective communication involves both perceivers (i.e., those who make inferences) and targets (i.e., those being judged), prior research has focused on perceivers. Here, we examined the relative contribution of perceivers and targets to explaining variance in empathic accuracy and the association between targets' expressive accuracy and perceivers' empathic accuracy. Data from 137 same-gender friend dyads were collected between 2018 and 2020. After engaging in a supportive interaction, participants watched videos and rated their own and their friend's affect during the conversation. Empathic accuracy was the correlation between participants' inferences of friends' affect and friends' reports of their own affect. Between 2022 and 2023, six to 10 external raters watched the videos and inferred participants' affect, providing additional empathic accuracy scores. Expressive accuracy was indexed as how accurately each participant's affect was read by the external raters on average. Targets (participants) explained more variance in empathic accuracy scores than perceivers (external raters), and participants' expressive accuracy positively predicted friends' empathic accuracy, even after controlling for emotional expressivity. Results suggest that expressing affect accurately may be a key component of affective communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146012617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Method of loci (MOL) is a strategy heavily utilized by superior memorists that leverages visualizations of familiar spatial environments (memory palaces) to enhance information recall. The characteristics of memory palaces used in MOL have not been well-studied. Yet, understanding how different memory palace features contribute to memory enhancement may allow us to design optimal palaces. Here, we examined whether memory palace valence influences neutral information recall. We found that participants (U.S. adults) who applied MOL using a negatively valenced palace (N = 40) outperformed participants who applied MOL using a positively valenced palace (N = 38) and participants in a non-MOL control group (N = 47) on a word recall test. Furthermore, participants who perceived the negative palace more negatively or positive palace more positively exhibited greater recall accuracy, but overall, the negative group outperformed the positive group. We replicated these findings in an independent sample of participants tested on their memory for steps in the process of making a floral paperweight. Again, the negative group (N = 33) outperformed the positive (N = 34) and control (N = 31) groups. These findings highlight that memory palaces can be constructed to optimize loci-dependent memory accuracy, providing new evidence-based strategies to improve memorization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"The memory palace architect: Effect of valence on loci-dependent recall performance.","authors":"Nicholas Chiang, Akram Bakkour","doi":"10.1037/emo0001647","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001647","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Method of loci (MOL) is a strategy heavily utilized by superior memorists that leverages visualizations of familiar spatial environments (memory palaces) to enhance information recall. The characteristics of memory palaces used in MOL have not been well-studied. Yet, understanding how different memory palace features contribute to memory enhancement may allow us to design optimal palaces. Here, we examined whether memory palace valence influences neutral information recall. We found that participants (U.S. adults) who applied MOL using a negatively valenced palace (<i>N</i> = 40) outperformed participants who applied MOL using a positively valenced palace (<i>N</i> = 38) and participants in a non-MOL control group (<i>N</i> = 47) on a word recall test. Furthermore, participants who perceived the negative palace more negatively or positive palace more positively exhibited greater recall accuracy, but overall, the negative group outperformed the positive group. We replicated these findings in an independent sample of participants tested on their memory for steps in the process of making a floral paperweight. Again, the negative group (<i>N</i> = 33) outperformed the positive (<i>N</i> = 34) and control (<i>N</i> = 31) groups. These findings highlight that memory palaces can be constructed to optimize loci-dependent memory accuracy, providing new evidence-based strategies to improve memorization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146012653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mindfulness is robustly associated with psychological and physiological well-being. To date, studies have primarily focused on trait mindfulness while neglecting its state-level momentary regulatory effects on daily stress. This preregistered study investigated the effects of state mindfulness on participants' momentary mood and physiological arousal in cohorts sampled between 2021 and 2024. Using the experience sampling method, 100 cohabiting couples (N = 200) completed five daily surveys for 16 days, and reported on their experiences of stressors (adverse events), state mindfulness levels, positive mood, and negative mood, while wearing Fitbit devices to monitor their heart rate. The registered analyses mainly demonstrated main effects (but no buffering effects) for state mindfulness. Specifically, state mindfulness predicted higher positive mood and lower heart rate among women. No association was found with negative mood, and state mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between stressors and stress response (mood and heart rate). However, secondary registered analyses, using a State Mindfulness Scale with more items, showed support for the mindfulness buffering effect, and indicated that negative events were associated with men's heart rate when mindfulness was low. Overall, these results underscore the importance of studying state-level mindfulness and pave the way for future research on how momentary mindfulness can enhance emotion regulation, which in turn may help promote well-being in daily life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"The role of mindfulness in attenuating the adverse effects of daily negative events: An experience sampling study.","authors":"Yonatan Perelman, Niv Reggev, Eran Bar-Kalifa","doi":"10.1037/emo0001628","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001628","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mindfulness is robustly associated with psychological and physiological well-being. To date, studies have primarily focused on trait mindfulness while neglecting its state-level momentary regulatory effects on daily stress. This preregistered study investigated the effects of state mindfulness on participants' momentary mood and physiological arousal in cohorts sampled between 2021 and 2024. Using the experience sampling method, 100 cohabiting couples (<i>N</i> = 200) completed five daily surveys for 16 days, and reported on their experiences of stressors (adverse events), state mindfulness levels, positive mood, and negative mood, while wearing Fitbit devices to monitor their heart rate. The registered analyses mainly demonstrated main effects (but no buffering effects) for state mindfulness. Specifically, state mindfulness predicted higher positive mood and lower heart rate among women. No association was found with negative mood, and state mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between stressors and stress response (mood and heart rate). However, secondary registered analyses, using a State Mindfulness Scale with more items, showed support for the mindfulness buffering effect, and indicated that negative events were associated with men's heart rate when mindfulness was low. Overall, these results underscore the importance of studying state-level mindfulness and pave the way for future research on how momentary mindfulness can enhance emotion regulation, which in turn may help promote well-being in daily life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146012752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Global crises necessitate collective action but confront people with the threat of negative future consequences, which can make them anxious and inactive. Based on the assumption that being moved is a collective approach emotion, we predicted that the threat of negative future consequences, as well as a positive future vision, motivates collective action through feelings of being moved. In four experimental studies (Ntotal = 718, conducted between 2021 and 2022 in Central Europe), we tested the moving potential of different threatening and visionary scenarios related to global crises, such as climate change and gender inequality, on collective action. While testing being moved as an underlying emotional process, we accounted for anxiety and anger as parallel processes. The results show that experimentally confronting participants with the threatening negative future consequences of the gender data gap (S1a and 1b) or climate change (S3) increased feelings of being moved that were linked to collective action. Shifting the cognitive focus from threat to a positive future vision (S2 and S3), where collective goals for equality and sustainability will be achieved, also increased feelings of being moved, predicting collective action as well. However, the total effect of global crisis salience on collective action was only positive in Studies 1a and 2, whereas Studies 1b and 3 revealed a null effect. Together, the findings connect threat and future vision salience effects on collective action through an affective-motivational process of being moved. The present findings may generalize to the target population of well-educated Western industrialized countries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"The moving potential of global crises: Threat and future visions are linked to collective action through feelings of being moved.","authors":"Janine Stollberg, Stefan Reiss, Eva Jonas","doi":"10.1037/emo0001636","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001636","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Global crises necessitate collective action but confront people with the threat of negative future consequences, which can make them anxious and inactive. Based on the assumption that being moved is a collective approach emotion, we predicted that the threat of negative future consequences, as well as a positive future vision, motivates collective action through feelings of being moved. In four experimental studies (<i>N</i><sub>total</sub> = 718, conducted between 2021 and 2022 in Central Europe), we tested the moving potential of different threatening and visionary scenarios related to global crises, such as climate change and gender inequality, on collective action. While testing being moved as an underlying emotional process, we accounted for anxiety and anger as parallel processes. The results show that experimentally confronting participants with the threatening negative future consequences of the gender data gap (S1a and 1b) or climate change (S3) increased feelings of being moved that were linked to collective action. Shifting the cognitive focus from threat to a positive future vision (S2 and S3), where collective goals for equality and sustainability will be achieved, also increased feelings of being moved, predicting collective action as well. However, the total effect of global crisis salience on collective action was only positive in Studies 1a and 2, whereas Studies 1b and 3 revealed a null effect. Together, the findings connect threat and future vision salience effects on collective action through an affective-motivational process of being moved. The present findings may generalize to the target population of well-educated Western industrialized countries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145991163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Most research on the development of emotion recognition has focused on facial expressions, leaving a relative gap in our understanding of how children interpret emotions through body movements. This study examined developmental changes in the ability to recognize basic emotions (joy, anger, fear, and sadness) from human biological motion presented in point-light displays (HBM-PLDs), with particular attention to how these changes vary depending on the type of emotion and age. One hundred twenty-eight preschool and primary school children aged 4-12 years participated in two experimental tasks involving the explicit recognition of emotions from HBM-PLDs. The results highlight a clear developmental progression in the recognition of emotions from HBM-PLDs with increasing age. This developmental change appears to follow a curvilinear trajectory, with an inflection point around 8.5 years of age (100 months). However, the study further reveals that this inflection point differs depending on the specific discrete emotion considered. Joy seems to be recognized as early as age 4, followed by anger between ages 5 and 6, sadness between ages 6 and 7.5, and finally fear after age 9-10. This represents an important contribution, demonstrating that the improvement in emotion recognition from body movement is not homogeneous but modulated according to the discrete emotion. These findings support the idea that the development of discrete emotion recognition is independent of the modality of presentation (facial expressions, body movements, vocal cues, etc.) and suggest that emotion recognition may rely on a modality-independent and unified developmental process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"The developmental changes in emotion recognition from human biological motion by children aged from 4 to 12 years.","authors":"Elliot Riviere, Yannick Courbois, Edouard Gentaz","doi":"10.1037/emo0001626","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001626","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Most research on the development of emotion recognition has focused on facial expressions, leaving a relative gap in our understanding of how children interpret emotions through body movements. This study examined developmental changes in the ability to recognize basic emotions (joy, anger, fear, and sadness) from human biological motion presented in point-light displays (HBM-PLDs), with particular attention to how these changes vary depending on the type of emotion and age. One hundred twenty-eight preschool and primary school children aged 4-12 years participated in two experimental tasks involving the explicit recognition of emotions from HBM-PLDs. The results highlight a clear developmental progression in the recognition of emotions from HBM-PLDs with increasing age. This developmental change appears to follow a curvilinear trajectory, with an inflection point around 8.5 years of age (100 months). However, the study further reveals that this inflection point differs depending on the specific discrete emotion considered. Joy seems to be recognized as early as age 4, followed by anger between ages 5 and 6, sadness between ages 6 and 7.5, and finally fear after age 9-10. This represents an important contribution, demonstrating that the improvement in emotion recognition from body movement is not homogeneous but modulated according to the discrete emotion. These findings support the idea that the development of discrete emotion recognition is independent of the modality of presentation (facial expressions, body movements, vocal cues, etc.) and suggest that emotion recognition may rely on a modality-independent and unified developmental process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145991216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective inertia-the persistence of emotional states over time-has garnered growing attention in affective science due to its implications for psychological well-being and emotion regulation. Yet empirical progress has been hindered by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges, and statistical limitations. Here, we identify seven interrelated challenges spanning three domains: conceptual (e.g., conflating inertia with emotional stability), measurement (e.g., misalignment between ordinal data and parametric models), and statistical modeling (e.g., violations of stationarity assumptions). Addressing these challenges requires dynamic approaches that capture the temporal complexity of emotional processes and differentiate adaptive from maladaptive persistence. We review theoretical developments and empirical innovations-including advances in modeling, assessment design, and assumption testing-that offer a path forward. By clarifying the measurement and interpretation of affective inertia, this work aims to enhance both basic emotion research and its clinical translation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"Seven challenges in affective inertia research.","authors":"Sijing Shao, Anthony D Ong","doi":"10.1037/emo0001630","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001630","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Affective inertia-the persistence of emotional states over time-has garnered growing attention in affective science due to its implications for psychological well-being and emotion regulation. Yet empirical progress has been hindered by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges, and statistical limitations. Here, we identify seven interrelated challenges spanning three domains: <i>conceptual</i> (e.g., conflating inertia with emotional stability), <i>measurement</i> (e.g., misalignment between ordinal data and parametric models), and <i>statistical modeling</i> (e.g., violations of stationarity assumptions). Addressing these challenges requires dynamic approaches that capture the temporal complexity of emotional processes and differentiate adaptive from maladaptive persistence. We review theoretical developments and empirical innovations-including advances in modeling, assessment design, and assumption testing-that offer a path forward. By clarifying the measurement and interpretation of affective inertia, this work aims to enhance both basic emotion research and its clinical translation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12798691/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145960635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Josip Razum, Igor Marchetti, Ivar Snorrason, Kristján H Hjartarson, Ragnar P Ólafsson
Previous studies have shown that emotional dynamics, that is, moment to moment variability and inertia of emotional states, are related to depression, but have no significant contribution after their overlap with mean affect is taken into account. However, few studies considered clinical samples. In our study, we compared a sample of euthymic formerly depressed persons (n = 94) at high risk of depression recurrence and healthy controls with no history of depression (n = 56), while using ecological momentary assessment data collected 10 times per day. The samples differed with respect to indicators of negative and positive affect dynamics computed from ecological momentary assessment data. However, when jointly considering all of emotional variability, inertia, and mean affect, only emotional inertia emerged as a significant predictor of group assignment. Specifically, the higher emotional inertia of positive affect proved to be the most influential predictor of belonging to the sample of formerly depressed persons versus being a healthy control. The finding remained even after controlling for differences in depressive symptoms between the samples. These findings indicate that positive affect inertia may characterize formerly depressed persons after symptoms have subsided, potentially indicating vulnerability for recurrence of depression episodes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"Positive affect inertia uniquely differentiates formerly depressed individuals from healthy controls: An ecological momentary assessment study.","authors":"Josip Razum, Igor Marchetti, Ivar Snorrason, Kristján H Hjartarson, Ragnar P Ólafsson","doi":"10.1037/emo0001637","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001637","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous studies have shown that emotional dynamics, that is, moment to moment variability and inertia of emotional states, are related to depression, but have no significant contribution after their overlap with mean affect is taken into account. However, few studies considered clinical samples. In our study, we compared a sample of euthymic formerly depressed persons (<i>n</i> = 94) at high risk of depression recurrence and healthy controls with no history of depression (<i>n</i> = 56), while using ecological momentary assessment data collected 10 times per day. The samples differed with respect to indicators of negative and positive affect dynamics computed from ecological momentary assessment data. However, when jointly considering all of emotional variability, inertia, and mean affect, only emotional inertia emerged as a significant predictor of group assignment. Specifically, the higher emotional inertia of positive affect proved to be the most influential predictor of belonging to the sample of formerly depressed persons versus being a healthy control. The finding remained even after controlling for differences in depressive symptoms between the samples. These findings indicate that positive affect inertia may characterize formerly depressed persons after symptoms have subsided, potentially indicating vulnerability for recurrence of depression episodes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145960678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elenor Morgenroth, Rukshani Somarathna, Dimitri Van De Ville, Gelareh Mohammadi, Patrik Vuilleumier
This study described the relationship between discrete emotions and their underlying components from a detailed data set of continuous annotations of more than 50 emotion variables during short films. Theoretical accounts such as appraisal models predict that emotions arise through a combination of distinctive components engaged by the evaluation of different situational dimensions. Here we build on the component process model that highlights a prime role of appraisals which determine motivation, expression, physiology, and feeling features associated with emotion experience. We obtained continuous annotations from all these domains during movie watching and observed a hierarchical organization of discrete emotions by appraisal of valence and self-relevance. Furthermore, we applied predictive models to understand the contribution of different emotion components to discrete emotion categories. We found that all 13 discrete emotions in our data set were reliably predicted as a function of particular emotion components. Our study contributed key insights using rich descriptors and machine learning to dissect the nature of emotion and supports the notion that appraisal processes are a key component in the differentiation of emotion experience. These findings also have implications on the complexity and function of emotion as an adaptive process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
{"title":"Dissecting appraisal and multicomponential features of emotion: Evidence from multilevel annotation during naturalistic stimulation.","authors":"Elenor Morgenroth, Rukshani Somarathna, Dimitri Van De Ville, Gelareh Mohammadi, Patrik Vuilleumier","doi":"10.1037/emo0001619","DOIUrl":"10.1037/emo0001619","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study described the relationship between discrete emotions and their underlying components from a detailed data set of continuous annotations of more than 50 emotion variables during short films. Theoretical accounts such as appraisal models predict that emotions arise through a combination of distinctive components engaged by the evaluation of different situational dimensions. Here we build on the component process model that highlights a prime role of appraisals which determine motivation, expression, physiology, and feeling features associated with emotion experience. We obtained continuous annotations from all these domains during movie watching and observed a hierarchical organization of discrete emotions by appraisal of valence and self-relevance. Furthermore, we applied predictive models to understand the contribution of different emotion components to discrete emotion categories. We found that all 13 discrete emotions in our data set were reliably predicted as a function of particular emotion components. Our study contributed key insights using rich descriptors and machine learning to dissect the nature of emotion and supports the notion that appraisal processes are a key component in the differentiation of emotion experience. These findings also have implications on the complexity and function of emotion as an adaptive process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48417,"journal":{"name":"Emotion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145960673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}