Affect labelling increases the intensity of positive emotions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although affect labelling has been widely reported to decrease negative emotions, it is less clear whether affect labelling also decreases positive emotions. In four studies, we explored how affect labelling (choosing the emotion that best corresponds with the image), content labelling (choosing the word that best corresponds with the content of the image), and simply viewing images influence positive and negative emotions. Labelling positive emotions led participants to report higher positive emotional intensity than did content labelling or just viewing the image (Study 1, N = 49), and this effect persisted regardless of whether they labelled emotions during or after the image (Study 2, N = 116), rated the intensity or positivity of their emotions (Study 3, N = 120), or rated their emotions after a delay or no delay (Study 4, N = 120). Surprisingly, we did not replicate the previous findings on affect labelling and negative emotion, instead showing that content labelling of negative emotional images tended to be the most consistent predictor of decreased negative emotions. Our results challenge the formulation that affect labelling leads to the automatic downregulation of emotions and instead suggest that it might be an effective mechanism in the upregulation of positive emotions.