Positive Emotion Infusions: Can Savoring Increase Help-Seeking Intentions among People with Depression?

The current research effort used two experimental studies to assess whether a savoring-based, positive emotion infusion (PEI) could increase help-seeking intentions among individuals with elevated depressive symptomatology and whether this relationship would be mediated by positive emotion, arousal, and perceptions of personal control.

In Study 1, participants with elevated depressive symptomatology, recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 135), were randomly assigned to complete a 6-minute savoring or control writing task followed by a help-seeking intentions scale. Study 2 participants (N = 136) were randomly assigned to the same tasks, but a scale assessing positive emotion, arousal, and personal control was added.

Study 1 indicated a direct effect; those who savored reported greater help-seeking intentions compared to control participants. Study 2 revealed an indirect effect of savoring on help-seeking intentions through greater positive emotion but not through greater arousal or perceptions of personal control.

Together, these results offer additional support for continued research on PEIs, and specifically, savoring-based PEIs. Although the experimental manipulations may be limited in regard to their ecological validity, for those seeking to create interventions, these studies offer a novel and efficacious approach for motivating individuals with elevated depressive symptomatology to seek help.