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Published on: September 12, 2014
Surprise: a belief or an emotion?
Barbara Mellers1, Katrina Fincher, Caitlin Drummond
1Department of Psychology, Solomon Labs, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. mellers@wharton.upenn.edu
Decision affect theory explains how cognitive assessments shape emotions like surprise. It clarifies why mistaken beliefs influence feelings and why good luck feels better than bad luck.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Affective Science
- Decision Making
Background:
- Surprise is a key link between cognition and emotion.
- Cognitive factors like likelihood and intuition shape our experience of surprise.
- Surprise influences our hedonic (pleasure/pain) experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the connection between cognition and emotion.
- To introduce and explain Decision Affect Theory.
- To understand the emotional consequences of beliefs and unexpected events.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical examination of the cognition-emotion link.
- Development of Decision Affect Theory.
- Analysis of how beliefs (e.g., overconfidence, hindsight) predict affective outcomes.
Main Results:
- Decision Affect Theory predicts affective consequences of mistaken beliefs.
- The theory explains phenomena like overconfidence and hindsight bias.
- It offers insights into why gains feel more impactful than losses and explains cross-cultural emotional variations.
Conclusions:
- Decision Affect Theory provides a framework for understanding surprise.
- The theory highlights the role of cognitive appraisals in emotional responses.
- Altering the perception of unexpected events (e.g., chance vs. good luck) changes emotional reactions.
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