Affect labelling increases the intensity of positive emotions

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

• Affect labelling is commonly believed to reduce negative emotions.
• Its impact on positive emotions remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how affect labelling, content labelling, and image viewing influence positive and negative emotions.
• To examine the consistency of affect labelling's effects across different conditions.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted involving participants labelling emotions or image content.
• Emotional intensity and positivity were measured after image exposure.

Main Results:

• Labelling positive emotions increased positive emotional intensity compared to content labelling or viewing.
• This effect on positive emotions was robust across variations in timing and rating methods.
• Content labelling, not affect labelling, consistently predicted decreased negative emotions.

Conclusions:

• Affect labelling may serve to upregulate positive emotions rather than automatically downregulate all emotions.
• The findings challenge the universal application of affect labelling for emotion regulation.