Periodic Reporting for period 4 - PEP (An Empirical Foundation for Understanding Positive Emotions)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-02-29
Positive emotions are important for our physical and mental health and for our social relationships, but we have little scientific knowledge about them. This project provides the insights into a large set of positive emotions, based on a studies that examine both subjective and objective aspects of over 20 different positive emotions, including gratitude, awe, amusement, relief, and pride. The overarching goal was to chart the experiences and expressions of positive emotions, as well as to produce datasets that will benefit researchers across many disciplines whose work builds on psychological theories of emotions, including behavioural economics, affective neuroscience, and anthropology.
The project is comprised of three projects.
The aim of the first project was to map out experiences of positive emotions and their relationships to wellbeing. We mapped the structure of positive emotion experiences using machine learning, showing that four positive emotions are unique categories within the positive emotion space, with additional positive emotions emerging as potentially separate categories. Results from a large-scale cross-cultural study on emotional experience show that positive emotions relate highly differently to subjective wellbeing and resilience: While some positive emotions, like love and calm, are clear predictors for wellbeing, other positive emotions, such as compassion, are unrelated to wellbeing and resilience.
The goal of the second project was to map out the nonverbal signals associated with different positive emotions. The results of our comprehensive review of vocal expressions of positive emotions mapped out the acoustic features characterising happy vocal expressions, showing that they, for example, tend to have considerable variability in loudness, and high and variable pitch. An investigation of spontaneous facial expressions of 22 positive emotions revealed considerable variability of the ways in which they are expressed, and also points to the importance of other cues than smiling for communicating positive emotions. We also examined how people in 10 different cultures think positive emotions are expressed, showing that, across cultures, positive emotions are thought to be expressed via a range of modalities that go beyond the face. We also developed and validated a questionnaire about display rules for positive emotions, that is, cultural norms on when and how they should be expressed. This research shows that not all positive emotions are subject to the same social norms about when it is acceptable to express them.
The goal of Project 3 was to provide an empirically grounded framework of positive emotions. This work included outlining criteria for positive emotion typologies, that is, classifications of positive emotions into conceptually distinct categories. In addition, a differentiation was drawn between understanding positive emotions in three different ways: as subjectively pleasant, involving approach motivation, or being evoked by opportunities and rewards in the environment. Finally, insights were outlined about how positive affect and emotions can promote change by serving as a reward for desired behaviours.
The aim of the first project was to map out experiences of positive emotions and their relationships to wellbeing. We mapped the structure of positive emotion experiences using machine learning, showing that four positive emotions are unique categories within the positive emotion space, with additional positive emotions emerging as potentially separate categories. Results from a large-scale cross-cultural study on emotional experience show that positive emotions relate highly differently to subjective wellbeing and resilience: While some positive emotions, like love and calm, are clear predictors for wellbeing, other positive emotions, such as compassion, are unrelated to wellbeing and resilience.
The goal of the second project was to map out the nonverbal signals associated with different positive emotions. The results of our comprehensive review of vocal expressions of positive emotions mapped out the acoustic features characterising happy vocal expressions, showing that they, for example, tend to have considerable variability in loudness, and high and variable pitch. An investigation of spontaneous facial expressions of 22 positive emotions revealed considerable variability of the ways in which they are expressed, and also points to the importance of other cues than smiling for communicating positive emotions. We also examined how people in 10 different cultures think positive emotions are expressed, showing that, across cultures, positive emotions are thought to be expressed via a range of modalities that go beyond the face. We also developed and validated a questionnaire about display rules for positive emotions, that is, cultural norms on when and how they should be expressed. This research shows that not all positive emotions are subject to the same social norms about when it is acceptable to express them.
The goal of Project 3 was to provide an empirically grounded framework of positive emotions. This work included outlining criteria for positive emotion typologies, that is, classifications of positive emotions into conceptually distinct categories. In addition, a differentiation was drawn between understanding positive emotions in three different ways: as subjectively pleasant, involving approach motivation, or being evoked by opportunities and rewards in the environment. Finally, insights were outlined about how positive affect and emotions can promote change by serving as a reward for desired behaviours.
The outcomes of this ERC project move the field beyond the current state of the art. For example, a novel prediction was that different types of positive emotional experiences would differentially relate to wellbeing. Being able to show this across a large number of countries using multiple methods (survey, diary studies), including with pre-registered analyses, establishes this as a novel yet robust finding. We found that calm and hope were particularly important for wellbeing. This is surprising given that affective interventions for improved wellbeing have primarily tended to focus on gratitude and compassion.
In addition, research on nonverbal emotional expressions has tended to focus on a small set of primarily negative emotions and has relied heavily on the use of posed expressions. The research of this project maps out both facial and vocal expressions of positive emotions using spontaneous expressions.
Finally, this ERC project brought together insights from different disciplines, which enabled questions on positive emotions to be addressed from multiple perspectives. Contributions focused on basic question around what constitutes positive affect and emotion and the mechanisms that generate positive affect at multiple levels of brain, body and behaviour, to more applied questions on how positive affect relates to issues like stress, health, and psychopathology. These insights are likely to be highly generative for further research.
In addition, research on nonverbal emotional expressions has tended to focus on a small set of primarily negative emotions and has relied heavily on the use of posed expressions. The research of this project maps out both facial and vocal expressions of positive emotions using spontaneous expressions.
Finally, this ERC project brought together insights from different disciplines, which enabled questions on positive emotions to be addressed from multiple perspectives. Contributions focused on basic question around what constitutes positive affect and emotion and the mechanisms that generate positive affect at multiple levels of brain, body and behaviour, to more applied questions on how positive affect relates to issues like stress, health, and psychopathology. These insights are likely to be highly generative for further research.