Affective expressions in groups and inferences about members' relational well-being: The effects of socially engaging and disengaging emotions

Our findings draw attention to the interpersonal communication function of a relatively unexplored dimension of emotions—the level of social engagement versus disengagement. In four experiments, regardless of valence and target group gender, observers infer greater relational well-being (more cohesiveness and less conflict) between group members from socially engaging (sadness and appreciation) versus disengaging (anger and pride) emotion expressions. Supporting our argument that social (dis)engagement is a critical dimension communicated by these emotions, we demonstrate (1) that inferences about group members' self-interest mediate the effect of socially engaging emotions on cohesiveness and (2) that the influence of socially disengaging emotion expressions on inferences of conflict is attenuated when groups have collectivistic norms (i.e., members value a high level of social engagement). Furthermore, we show an important downstream consequence of these inferences of relational well-being: Groups that seem less cohesive because of their members' proud (versus appreciative) expressions are also expected to have worse task performance.     

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N=185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experiential and autonomic reactivity to pride, happy, and amusement film stimuli between depressive (n=24; DS) and non-depressive (n=31; NDS) symptom groups. Results indicate that symptoms of depression were most strongly associated with decreased trait pride and decreased positive emotion experience to pride-eliciting films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for understanding emotion deficits in depression as well as for the general study of positive emotion.     

The representation of emotions in groups: the relative impact of social norms,positive–negative asymmetry and familiarity on the perception of emotions

Research in several countries shows that people hold norms of emotion perception, so that socially desirable emotions are perceived as positive and moderate. Subjects also believe that positive and moderate emotions are dominant in their lives. Other research shows that increased familiarity with a social group allows a better differentiation among the members and the attributes of this group (e.g. wider variability of emotions). In the present study, we compare the relative impact of familiarity with pleasant and unpleasant groups and social norms on emotion perception. Subjects (N=150) were to rate imagined family groups, families that they did not know well, and families that they knew very well, on perceived differentiation and variability of emotional episodes, extremity of emotional events, and global family evaluations. Results indicated that familiarity is weakly associated with perceived emotional variability in target families, and that, regardless of their familiarity with the family, subjects viewed unpleasant families as more negative, as less familiar, and as having a larger range of emotions than pleasant families. Results are discussed in terms of the idea that perception of emotions in groups depends more strongly on social norms than either on positive–negative asymmetry or on direct experience with their members.     

The role of emotions in predicting sperm and egg donation

Sperm and egg donation allows people who cannot have children naturally to become parents. However, in many countries there is a shortage of donors. Therefore, it is important to assess the factors that influence donation. Across two studies, we assessed the role of social‐cognitive and emotional factors in promoting and deterring sperm and egg donation. Study 1 (N = 138 men) found that feeling anxiety toward discovering a fertility problem and pride positively predicted sperm donation intention and information seeking behavior. By contrast, feeling anxiety toward the process of donation negatively predicted sperm donation intention and information seeking behavior. Study 2 (N = 193 women) found that pride positively and the anxiety toward the process negatively predicted egg donation intentions, but not information seeking behavior. These results suggest that it is important to consider the role of emotions in motivating and deterring people from becoming a sperm and egg donor.     

Understanding of moral emotions and social exclusion in pre-schoolers and third graders

Abstract

This study examined whether children use information about moral emotions when judging peer exclusion. Japanese pre-schoolers and third graders (N = 110) listened to stories featuring characters who felt happy or sad after engaging in immoral behaviour or avoiding immoral behaviour (pushing a child off a swing and stealing another child’s doughnuts). In study 1, participants judged the extent to which characters who felt happiness, guilt, and pride would be socially excluded. In study 2, participants judged whether characters who felt guilt, no guilt, pride, and no pride would be socially excluded. Participants believed that characters would be socially excluded based on moral emotions. Characters who did not feel guilt or pride were excluded more frequently relative to those who did; however, children found it easier to judge exclusion based on guilt rather than pride, especially in the case of pre-schoolers. Moreover, pre-schoolers had difficulty explaining their reasoning.     

The self and others in the experience of pride

Pride is seen as both a self-conscious emotion as well as a social emotion. These categories are not mutually exclusive, but have brought forth different ideas about pride as either revolving around the self or as revolving around one’s relationship with others. Current measures of pride do not include intrapersonal elements of pride experiences. Social comparisons, which often cause experiences of pride, contain three elements: the self, the relationship between the self and another person, and the other person. From the literature on pride, we distilled three related elements; perceptions and feelings of self-inflation, other-distancing, and other-devaluation. In four studies, we explored whether these elements were present in pride experiences. We did so at an implicit (Experiment 1; N?=?218) and explicit level (Experiment 2; N?=?125), in an academic setting with in vivo (Experiment 3; N?=?203) and imagined pride experiences (Experiment 4; N?=?126). The data consistently revealed that the experience of pride is characterised by self-inflation, not by other-distancing nor other-devaluation.     

From “I” to “We”: Different forms of identity,emotion, and belief predict victim support volunteerism among nominal and active supporters

Understanding how to attract and maintain volunteers is crucial for the operation of victim support organizations. We propose that volunteerism can be understood in a similar way as collective action. Active (N = 99) and nominal supporters (N = 134) completed measures of identities (personal, social, and organizational), emotions (sympathy, outrage, and pride), and efficacy beliefs (self‐, group, and organizational). The results revealed a different pattern of predictors of volunteerism for the two samples. Among nominal supporters, commitment to volunteerism was predicted by personal identity (“I”), sympathy, and self‐efficacy; among the actively engaged, volunteerism was predicted by social identity (“we”), outrage, and self‐efficacy. These results suggest that engagement with volunteerism is associated with qualitatively different processes for those nominally versus actively supportive of volunteer efforts.     

Felt emotions,and verbally communicated emotions: the case of pride

Potential discrepancies between felt and verbally communicated emotions elicited by two Pride events (‘selected for a job among a large group’ and ‘being congratulated for one's own new partner’) were studied by means of a structured questionnaire. Italian male (n = 88) and female (n = 107) university students attributed felt and communicated emotions to the event protagonist P, choosing from a list of 14 emotions; the communication occurred with P‘s partner or friend, or with an acquaintance. Statistical analyses of subjects’ attributions confirmed the hypothesis that felt emotions are regulated in verbal communication to others: pride, triumph, self-satisfaction and excitement were de-emphasized in communication; joy, satisfaction, happiness and surprise were intensified; other emotions were communicated as felt. Event type, and to a lesser extent sex of subject, significantly influenced the direction and extent of regulation. The results are interpreted as showing that the verbal communication of emotion is influenced by emotion-related social norms and beliefs.     

“Patriotism à la Carte”: Perceived Legitimacy of Collective Guilt and Collective Pride as Motivators for Political Behavior

Intergroup emotions motivate behavior, yet little is known about how people perceive these emotional experiences in others. In three experiments (Ns = 109, 179, 246), we show that U.S. citizens believe collective guilt is an illegitimate emotional motivator for ingroup political behavior, while collective pride is legitimate. This differential legitimacy is due to the perception that collective guilt violates the norm of group interest, while collective pride adheres to it; those who believe ingroup interests are more important than outgroups’ exhibited this illegitimacy gap. The perception that the intergroup emotion promoted ingroup entitativity mediated the relationship between emotion (pride vs. guilt) and legitimacy; this relationship was especially strong for those high in the belief in the norm of group interest. Collective guilt can have prosocial consequences, yet the perception that it is illegitimate may hinder such consequences from being realized.     

Acculturation preferences and behavioural tendencies between majority and minority groups: The mediating role of emotions

The main goal of this research was twofold. First, we aimed at determining how acculturation preferences and emotions were related to specific intergroup behavioural tendencies towards majority and minority groups. Second, we aimed at developing an intergroup behavioural tendencies scale that differentiates between valence (facilitation and harm) and intensity (active and passive). The role of intergroup contact was also examined, as it is a known predictor of intergroup prejudice. In order to fulfil these goals, we carried out two studies. In Study 1 , Spanish participants (N = 279) answered a questionnaire about Moroccans (a devalued group) or Ecuadorians (a valued group) by reporting their acculturation preferences for immigrants, their positive and negative emotions, quantity of contact with them and behavioural tendencies towards them. In Study 2 , Moroccans (N = 92) and Ecuadorians (N = 87) assessed Spaniards on these measures. Results confirmed the structure of the new behavioural tendencies scale across four groups of participants. Overall, findings also showed that acculturation preferences and quantity of contact indirectly predicted behavioural tendencies through positive emotions. This research contributes to knowledge on how the majority and minority's acculturation preferences are related to their emotions and specific dimensions of intergroup behavioural tendencies, confirming the predominant mediating role of positive emotions in this process.     

The influence of norms and social identities on children's responses to bullying

Background. Research on bullying increasingly focuses on social processes, showing that group membership affects children's responses to bullying scenarios. Additionally, correlational research has shown links between norms of cooperation and prosocial behaviour, and between competition and more aggressive forms of behaviour. Aims. This paper focuses on how children's peer group membership affects their group‐based emotions in response to an intergroup bullying incident, and the action tendencies that these emotions predict, in the context of different background norms (for competitive or cooperative behaviour). Sample. Italian schoolchildren, 10–13 years old (N= 128, 65 males) took part in this study. Methods. Participants were randomly assigned to the group of a perpetrator, target, or third‐party group member described in a scenario. Next, they played a game designed to induce a cooperative, competitive, or neutral norm, and read the scenario. They then answered a questionnaire measuring their group‐based emotions. Results. Results underscored the role of norms and group processes in responses to bullying. In particular, children exposed to a cooperative norm expressed less pride and more regret and anger about the bullying than those in other conditions. Conclusions. This study indicates that the influence peer groups have on bullying may be tempered by the introduction of a cooperative normative context to the school setting.     

Nie Wieder: Group‐Based Emotions for In‐Group Wrongdoing Affect Attitudes toward Unrelated Minorities

This article focuses on the effects of group‐based emotions for in‐group wrongdoing on attitudes towards seemingly unrelated groups. Two forms of shame are distinguished from one another and from guilt and linked to positive and negative attitudes towards an unrelated minority. In Study 1 (N = 203), Germans' feelings of moral shame—arising from the belief that the in‐group's Nazi past violates an important moral value—are associated with increased support for Turks living in Germany. Image shame—arising from a threatened social image—is associated with increased social distance. In Study 2 (N = 301), Britons' emotions regarding atrocities committed by in‐group members during the war in Iraq have similar links with attitudes towards Pakistani immigrants. We extend the findings of Study 1 by demonstrating that the effects are mediated by a sense of moral obligation and observed more strongly when the unrelated group is perceived as similar to the harmed group. Guilt was unrelated to any outcome variable across both studies. Theoretical and practical implications about the nature of group‐based emotions and their potential for affecting wider intergroup relations are discussed.     

University Students' Emotion During Online Search Task: A Multiple Achievement Goal Perspective

Endorsing a multiple goal perspective, students' academic emotions were examined with different goal profiles while solving learning tasks online. One hundred and seven Chinese undergraduates were classified based on the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework into three groups: Mastery-approach-focused, Approach-oriented, and Avoidance-oriented group. Participants' emotional states were assessed immediately prior to the task and following the task. Prior to the task, the Avoidance-oriented group reported significantly higher levels of deactivated negative emotion (i.e., bored and confused) than the Approach-oriented group. The Mastery-approach-focused group reported significantly higher levels of activated positive emotions (i.e., excited and eager) than the Avoidance-oriented group after the task. Within each group, all three groups followed a similar emotion change pattern prior versus after the search task in deactivated positive emotion, with a significant increase. In addition, the Mastery-approach-focused group also reported a significantly higher level of happiness after completing the task, whereas the other two groups did not report much change. The Avoidance-oriented group also reported a significant drop in the feeling of excitement, eagerness, anxiety, and nervousness; whereas, the Approach-oriented group reported a significantly higher level of confusion after the task was finished. Implications of the findings are further discussed.     

Examining associations between self-conscious emotions and implicit and reflective processes among adolescent girls and boys

ObjectiveExamine the association between self-conscious emotions and adolescents’ implicit attitudes (i.e., automatic evaluations or “gut reactions”) towards sport.DesignIn this cross-sectional design, 162 adolescents completed self-report questionnaires and a single category implicit association task. Study protocols transitioned from in-person to online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.MeasuresSelf-conscious emotions (i.e., fitness-related shame and pride) were assessed using the BSE-FIT (Castonguay et al., 2016), and sport enjoyment (i.e., reflective attitudes) was assessed using four items from Scanlan and colleagues measure of adolescents’ sport experiences (Scanlan et al., 1993). The Single-Category Implicit Association Task using images was used to measure their implicit attitudes towards sport (Karpinski & Steinman, 2006).ResultsBased on a structural equation model accounting for age and gender, higher levels of fitness pride related to higher sport enjoyment and higher levels of fitness shame related to less favourable implicit attitudes towards sport.ConclusionOverall, results might reflect differences in when self-conscious emotions are most relevant, whereby pride is more relevant when reflecting on experiences in sport, however fitness shame is related to implicit attitudes elicited from the sport context. Interventions that target affective judgments of the self may be useful to incorporate into strategies to reduce sport drop out in adolescents.     

Weight-related actual and ideal self-states,discrepancies, and shame,guilt, and pride: Examining associations within the process model of self-conscious emotions

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between women's actual:ideal weight-related self-discrepancies and experiences of weight-related shame, guilt, and authentic pride using self-discrepancy (Higgins, 1987) and self-conscious emotion (Tracy & Robins, 2004) theories as guiding frameworks. Participants (N = 398) completed self-report questionnaires. Main analyses involved polynomial regressions, followed by the computation and evaluation of response surface values. Actual and ideal weight self-states were related to shame (R² = .35), guilt (R² = .25), and authentic pride (R² = .08). When the discrepancy between actual and ideal weights increased, shame and guilt also increased, while authentic pride decreased. Findings provide partial support for self-discrepancy theory and the process model of self-conscious emotions. Experiencing weight-related self-discrepancies may be important cognitive appraisals related to shame, guilt, and authentic pride. Further research is needed exploring the relations between self-discrepancies and a range of weight-related self-conscious emotions.     

Derogating obese individuals: the role of blame,contempt, and disgust

Weight stigma is pervasive and has profound negative consequences for obese individuals. The attribution‐emotion approach of stigmatization holds that blame attributions relate to derogation stigmatized groups indirectly through anger and pity. Other research suggests that disgust is related to weight stigma. In the present studies, we investigate whether contempt is a reliable predictor of biases against obese individuals. Study 1 (N = 297) shows that contempt partially mediates the relation between blame and both prejudice and support for weight related discrimination policies. Studies 2 and 3 (total N = 406) added disgust and show that both contempt and disgust relate to social distance and prejudice. Contempt mediated the relation between blame and negative reactions toward obese individuals, even after controlling for other emotions, while disgust only mediated these relations in Study 2. Anger and pity did not show this mediating role, but pity was moderately associated with weight bias. Contempt is likely to play an important role in how people react to members of this stigmatized group.     

Achievement Emotions: A Control-Value Approach

Emotions are ubiquitous in achievement settings. Apart from test anxiety research and attributional studies, psychological research has neglected these emotions. We argue that more research on the functions, origins, and regulation of achievement emotions is needed, addressing both outcome emotions related to success and failure, such as hope, pride, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness, and activity emotions such as the enjoyment and boredom experienced in achievement settings. Using Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions as a theoretical framework, we first outline a three-dimensional (object focus × valence × activation) taxonomy of achievement emotions. We then summarize research on the individual and social origins of these emotions, arguing that control appraisals, value appraisals, achievement goals, and related contextual factors are of specific relevance for achievement emotion arousal. Next, the importance of emotions for achievement behavior and performance is addressed. In conclusion, we discuss the regulation and modification of achievement emotions and their relative universality across genders, settings, and cultures.     

The impact of Gacaca tribunals in Rwanda: Psychosocial effects of participation in a truth and reconciliation process after a genocide

Victims (N = 200) of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and prisoners (N = 184) accused of genocidal acts reported their genocide‐related emotions and outgroup perceptions before and after their participation to Truth and Reconciliation Gacaca trials. So did control groups of victims (N = 195) and prisoners (N = 176) not yet exposed to Gacaca. The data supported Durkheim's model of social rituals as cultural tools for transforming emotions, reasserting norms, and enhancing cohesion. Specifically, participation entailed the general reactivation of resignation negative emotions, the enhancement of shame among prisoners, and the decrease of shame among victims, whereas the opposite pattern occurred for antagonist emotions. Participation also enhanced social integration by reducing perceived outgroup homogeneity, decreasing ingroup self‐categorization, and increasing positive stereotypes among both victim and prisoner participants. Moreover, the increase in genocide‐related emotions resulting from participation was associated to positive changes outcomes, suggesting that the increase of negative emotions is an important mechanism at work in collective events of this type. Enhancement of the perception of a positive emotional climate (solidarity and trust) was limited to perpetrator participants. Together, these findings show that Durkheim's model can be extended to restorative justice trials involving both victims and perpetrators. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Morality and political orientations: An analysis of their relationship

Groups are social constructions with differences. People spontaneously attempt to explain differences between groups. Stereotypes often play this explanatory role. Specifically, group members tend to attribute different essences to social categories. Given widespread ethnocentrism, it is not surprising that individuals reserve “the human essence” for their ingroup, while other groups are attributed a lesser humanity. This phenomenon is called infra‐humanisation and happens outside people's awareness. Secondary emotions (e.g., love, hope, contempt, resentment) are considered uniquely human emotions in contrast to primary emotions (e.g., joy, surprise, fear, anger) that are shared with animals. The research programme summarised in this chapter demonstrates through various paradigms that members of groups not only attribute more secondary emotions to their ingroup than to outgroups, but are also reluctant to associate these emotions with outgroups. Moreover, people behave less cooperatively with an outgroup member who expresses himself with secondary emotions than with an ingroup member who uses the same terms. Interestingly, infra‐humanisation occurs for both high‐ and low‐status groups, even in the absence of conflict between groups.     

A differentiated approach to the link between positive emotion,motivation, and eudaimonic well-being

Many studies have highlighted the role that positive emotions play in promoting eudaimonic well-being, yet often fail to differentiate between discrete positive emotions (e.g. gratitude, compassion, pride, and contentment). As such, potential functional differences among positive emotions in contributing to eudaimonic well-being may have been overlooked. The present study (N = 273) differentiated communion from agency motivation as well as other-focused from self-focused eudaimonic well-being. In line with a hypothesized model, pride contributed positively to self-focused eudaimonic well-being indirectly via agency motivation, and contentment was directly linked positively to self-focused eudaimonic well-being. Compassion contributed positively to other-focused eudaimonic well-being indirectly via communion motivation and gratitude was directly linked positively to other-focused eudaimonic well-being. While several other links were observed, hypothesized links were generally stronger. These findings highlight the potential utility of adopting approaches that differentiate among positive emotions in applied and theoretical work in the field of positive psychology.