Affective science最新文献

Phylogenetically salient stimuli such as spiders are commonly reported threats in the general population and the most common object of specific phobias in clinical populations. Several theories have hypothesized that our perceptual systems prioritize such stimuli in an “automatic” or “bottom-up” manner due to their evolutionary salience. However, empirical research on the perceptual processing of these stimuli as well as the influence of “top-down” goal-driven and bottom-up stimulus-driven factors is lacking. Here, we used perceptual psychophysics to determine absolute perceptual thresholds for the detection of spider and crab images. Subsequently, participants used spider and crab cues (that imposed a top-down perceptual set) to detect spiders and crab images presented at their predetermined perceptual threshold in a two-alternative forced-choice perceptual decision-making task. While spiders were detected at lower perceptual thresholds than crabs, they were not immune to top-down influence. Indeed, compared to top-down crab cues, spider cues improved the speed and accuracy of detection of spiders vs crabs. Using a hierarchical drift diffusion model, we found that spider cues biased decision-making not only by shifting the starting point of evidence accumulation towards the spider decision, but also by increasing the efficiency with which sensory evidence accumulated, more so for spider than crab perceptual decisions. Overall, these findings provide evidence for the perceptual prioritization of phylogenetically salient stimuli and highlight the computational mechanisms by which this prioritization is facilitated by bottom-up and top-down factors.

The ability to infer others’ emotions is important for social communication. This study examines three key aspects of emotion perception for which relatively little is currently known: (1) the evaluation of the intensity of portrayed emotion, (2) the role of contextual information in the perception of facial configurations, and (3) developmental differences in how children perceive co-occurring facial and contextual information. Two experiments examined developmental effects on the influence of congruent, incongruent, and neutral situational contexts on participants’ reasoning about others’ emotions, both with and without emotion labels. Experiment 1 revealed that participants interpreted others’ emotions to be of higher intensity when facial movements were congruent with contextual information. This effect was greater for children compared to adolescents and adults. Experiment 2 showed that without verbal emotion category labels, adults relied less on context to scale their intensity judgments, but children showed an opposite pattern; in the absence of labels, children relied more on contextual information than facial information. Making accurate inferences about others’ internal states is a complex learning task given high variability within and across individuals and contexts. These data suggest changes in attention to perceptual information as such learning occurs.

Feelings of affection (i.e., fondness and intense positive regard) are a hallmark of close relationships. Existing studies have often examined affection as a trait or behavior, but rarely as an emotional experience in social interactions. In two dyadic observational interaction studies (total N = 314 individuals), 49 US-based married couples (age range: 21–65) and 108 friendship dyads (age range: 15–26) engaged in two naturalistic 10-min conversations about (a) a topic of disagreement (conflict conversation) and (b) something they enjoyed doing together (pleasant conversation) and reported on their subjective emotional experiences (e.g., affection, using an emotion checklist following each conversation) and relationship satisfaction. Conversation transcripts were analyzed using natural language analysis. Results showed that experiences of affection were most strongly associated with experiences of compassion, amusement, and excitement, as well as with less anger, and were unrelated to most other negative emotions. Natural language analysis further showed that greater positive (but not negative) emotional tone was associated with greater affection (especially among friends in the pleasant conversations). Levels of affection were consistently higher in pleasant versus conflict conversations and similar across marital versus friendship interactions. Finally, experiences of affection were associated with greater relationship satisfaction for friends across conversations and for spouses (women) in the pleasant conversation. These findings contribute to our understanding of affection as a foundational emotional experience in close relationships and highlight avenues for future research.

Pain and social behavior are subject to reciprocal modulation. Social animals show attenuated pain behavior in the presence of conspecifics, while observers are in turn affected by exposure to another individual in pain. Both phenomena have been established in rodents, which in addition to experiencing emotional contagion from afflicted conspecifics may act to relieve their afflicted state. Little has been done to investigate the motivation of such prosocial behavior in naturalistic conditions. Here, using a novel formalin test targeting the nape of the neck, a socially relevant area, we investigated nocifensive behaviors and social interactions in mice group-housed in a seminatural environment (SNE). In the SNE, formalin-injected mice displayed fewer back-scratching occurrences than when housed alone, which was inversely correlated to the social behavior received. These mice also emitted and received fewer social interactions, attesting of social withdrawal. With respect to dyadic exchanges, saline-treated mice initiated fewer allosniffing and anogenital sniffing episodes towards formalin-treated mice than towards other saline-treated ones. These findings are counter to those showing empathy and prosocial approach in mouse pain models. It is possible that in naturalistic conditions that allow the mice to express a wide range of their behavioral repertoire, healthy mice simply avoid individuals in pain and the cost associated with emotional contagion. Interestingly, behaviors involving direct body contact, namely allogrooming and pair-resting, were not different between saline- and formalin-treated mice and thus may carry a prosocial, altruistic component. These findings unveil new patterns of social modulation by pain in a naturalistic laboratory setting holding high translational value.

This article discusses how the affectivism framework and the componential approach to emotion may serve the future of affective sciences. A particular aim of the article is to show that an appraisal-based componential approach to emotion can help reconcile opposing theories. It begins by contextualizing the evolution of emotion science within the framework of affectivism, acknowledging that the significant epistemological differences between various theories have paradoxically spurred interest in studying emotion across various perspectives and disciplines. If affectivism is regarded as the pursuit of a deeper understanding of not only emotions and other affective processes but also cognitive and behavioral processes, then its success can be partly attributed to the existence of multiple approaches, allowing each discipline and perspective to advance using the most suitable theory and methodology. We contend that a componential approach reveals that the five principal theories of emotion have each focused on one of five components of emotion. Overall, based on the analysis of several articles published in the special issue on the future of affective science, we argue that affective scientists are well equipped not only to build a future in which conceptual and methodological tools will be used to test diverging hypotheses between competing theories but also to acknowledge and celebrate where such theories converge.

A developmental psychobiologist commented on the role of dynamic systems theory in the future of affective science and proposed an alternative paradigm.

While research has shown mixed effects of social media on mental health and well-being, little is known about the association between social media attitudes and objective measures of social interaction, such as linguistic authenticity. This study examined the relationship between self-reported social anxiety, linguistic authenticity, and Instagram contingent self-worth (ICSW). A total of 149 adults with active Instagram accounts completed online questionnaires and shared their Instagram comment data. Automated linguistic analysis of authenticity was performed on participants’ comment data using validated algorithms. Multiple linear regression showed that ICSW significantly moderated the relationship between social anxiety and linguistic authenticity, whereby higher levels of social anxiety marginally predicted lower linguistic authenticity at high levels of ICSW. As social media use continues to rise, this study emphasizes the need to explore the impact of social media interactions on emotional and social well-being.

The Future of Affective Science Special Issues illuminate where the field of Affective Science is headed in coming years, highlighting exciting new directions for research. Many of the articles in the issues emphasized the importance of studying emotion regulation, and specifically, social emotion regulation. This commentary draws on these articles to argue that future research needs to more concretely focus on the social aspects of social emotion regulation, which have been underexplored in affective science. Specifically, we discuss the importance of focusing on social goals, strategies and tactics, and outcomes relevant to social emotion regulation interactions, more closely considering these processes for all individuals involved. To do so, we draw on research from neighboring subdisciplines of psychology that have focused on the social aspects of interactions. Moreover, we underscore the need to better integrate components of the process model of social emotion regulation and approach empirical inquiry more holistically, in turn illuminating how piecemeal investigations of these processes might lead to an incomplete or incorrect understanding of social emotion regulation. We hope this commentary supplements the research in the special issues, further highlighting ways to advance the field.