Emotion Regulation by Psychological Distance and Level of Abstraction: Two Meta-Analyses

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Self-reflection aims to reduce emotional intensity.
• Disagreement exists on whether psychological distance or abstraction is more effective for emotion regulation.
• The construal-matching hypothesis links psychological distance and abstraction to emotion intensity based on appraisal level.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the construal-matching hypothesis.
• To investigate the effects of psychological distance and level of abstraction on emotional experience.
• To determine how emotion type influences the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies.

Main Methods:

• Two meta-analyses were conducted.
• Examined the effects of psychological distance manipulations (k = 230) on emotional experience.
• Examined the effects of level-of-abstraction manipulations (k = 98) on emotional experience.

Main Results:

• A distant perspective significantly attenuated emotional experience (g = 0.52).
• Distant perspectives were more effective for low-level emotions (g = 0.64) than high-level emotions (g = 0.29).
• Level of abstraction attenuated low-level emotions (g = 0.2) but had a reverse, nonsignificant effect on high-level emotions (g = -0.13).

Conclusions:

• Psychological distance and level of abstraction have differential effects on emotion intensity.
• The effectiveness of these emotion regulation strategies depends on the construal level of the emotion.
• Considering the type of emotion is crucial for effective emotion regulation.