Elicitation Of Positive Emotions Research Articles

Sweet ideas: How the sensory experience of sweetness impacts creativity

The importance of creativity to organizations is significant, ergo, scholars have begun to investigate how sensory elements in the workplace might impact creative performance. Our research examines effects of the sensory experience of taste, specifically sweetness, on creativity. Using a range of real taste tests and imagination tasks, we demonstrate that sweet taste facilitates creative performance. We argue that this is because sweet taste, as a positive implicit affective cue, increases cognitive flexibility and creativity independent of the elicitation of positive emotions. However, when the positive associations of sweet taste are externally overridden, such as when health risks are made salient, the positive impact of sweet taste on creativity is attenuated. We further demonstrate that sensory experience of sweetness increases performance on related tasks that require cognitive flexibility, but does not increase performance on non-creative tasks.

Applying acceptability and emotion to understand the consumer's consumption habits and involvement with coffee

AbstractThe current study determined the hedonic perception and emotion response during coffee consumption, and also aimed to understand the coffee drinkers' involvement and consumption habits related to this beverage. An acceptability and an emotions test followed by an attitudinal survey on consumption habits and coffee involvement were performed with three coffees samples. Results suggest that coffee drinkers, in general, drink coffee to experience sensory gratification and elicitation of positive emotions, and absence of negative emotions. Three consumer clusters were identified and the data reaffirmed that consumers' like and dislike were directly related to positive and negative emotions, respectively. It also revealed that the absence of interest for samples can dampen the emotion response drastically as seen with Cluster 2. Although all three clusters cared about coffee very much, there were no distinct patterns that tied their preferences in the test to their coffee consumption habits and perception.Practical ApplicationsWith the advent of specialty coffee and coffee shops, consumers are approaching coffee from a drinking experience perspective rather than just caffeine fix. Consumers want to know more about the origins of their coffee, which is also tied to their increased awareness of sustainability and quality issues. The results of this study, we hope, will help provide guidance to the coffee industry and growers in understanding the expectations of the coffee drinker and hence, market their coffees effectively.

Using Speech Acts to Elicit Positive Emotions for Complainants on Social Media

A carefully tailored tone in response to a complaint on social media can create positive emotions for an upset customer. However, very few studies have identified what response tones, based on an established theory, would be most effective for complaint management. This study conceptualizes a service agent's response tones based on Ballmer and Brennenstuhl's (1981) classification of speech acts and examines how an agent's use of speech acts elicit positive emotions for the complainant. Ballmer and Brennenstuhl classify speech acts within the dimensions of conventionality and dialogicality, and they suggest the two dimensions interact. Thus, we examine the impact of each dimension of speech acts and the interactions between the two dimensions on the elicitation of positive emotions for complainants. We collected over 100,000 tweets and classified firm agents' speech acts and complainants' emotions by designing deep learning architectures (i.e., bi-directional recurrent neural networks). Our fixed-effect regression results show that a low level of each speech act leads to the elicitation of customers' positive emotions but that the combination of the two erodes the individual advantages. This study expands Ballmer and Brennenstuhl's (1981) speech act classification from a speaker's perspectives to a listener's perspectives by contextualizing it in an analysis of service agents' tones and their roles in eliciting positive emotions among complainants.

Working mechanisms in positive interventions: A study using daily assessment of positive emotions

ABSTRACT One commonly suggested mechanism in positive psychology interventions (PPIs) involves the elicitation of positive emotions. We examined (1) whether PPIs increase the intensity and variety of positive emotions; (2) which positive emotions are elicited by two different PPIs; and (3) the impact of positive emotions on well-being. In a randomized, controlled one-week intervention study, we compared the ‘three good things’ and the ‘three funny things’ intervention with a placebo control. We assessed the positive and negative emotions reported daily during the intervention, and the well-being and depressive symptoms directly before, after, and one week after the intervention. Results showed higher intensity and variety of positive emotions elicited by the PPIs, and increases in well-being could be explained by the intensity and variety of positive emotions. The study provides a model for how the mechanisms underlying PPIs can be studied and underlines the relevance of positive emotions in PPIs.

How to win the consumer’s heart? Exploring appraisal determinants of consumer pre-consumption emotions

• Pre-consumption emotions are explained by appraisal dimensions. • Emotions are goal-relevant signals that beneficially guide consumer behavior. • Goal-relevant contents is the key success factor of emotion-focused marketing. • eWOM is effective in improving consumer appraisal of goal relevance. Emotions are key drivers of consumption in the tourism and hospitality sector. Therefore, advancing our understanding of the determinants of consumer emotions is critical for tourism and hospitality marketers to effectively influence consumer affect-driven consumption behavior. However, research on the determinants of pre-consumption emotions remains under-explored. This study aims to fill the research gap and proposes a theoretical framework to explain affect-driven behavior. Grounded on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, we hypothesize that marketing stimuli are personally appraised based on several dimensions such as novelty and goal relevance. These appraisal dimensions determine the elicitation of positive emotions, leading to behavioral intentions. A total of 655 participants were recruited for an empirical study to test this framework in the context of a tourism event experience. We use an experimental research design to examine consumer appraisals, emotions and behavioral intentions in four conditions: two marketing visual formats (poster vs. video) over two delivery channels (advertising vs. e-word-of-mouth). Research outcomes support the theoretical framework of consumer affect-driven behavior, suggesting that the elicitation of positive emotions beneficially guides consumer behavior in goal striving and novelty seeking. Based on this, emotion-focused marketing implications are recommended, including goal-based segmentation, goal-relevant content development and the use of eWOM as an emotion-enhancing message delivery channel.

Positive Emotion Elicitation in Chat-Based Dialogue Systems

We aim to draw on an important overlooked potential of affective dialogue systems—their application to promote positive emotional states, similar to that of emotional support between humans. This can be achieved by eliciting a more positive emotional valence throughout a dialogue system interaction, i.e., positive emotion elicitation. Existing works on emotion elicitation have not yet paid attention to the emotional benefit for the users. Moreover, a positive emotion elicitation corpus does not yet exist despite the growing number of emotion-rich corpora. Towards this goal, first, we propose a response retrieval approach for positive emotion elicitation by utilizing examples of emotion appraisal from a dialogue corpus. Second, we efficiently construct a corpus using the proposed retrieval method, by replacing responses in a dialogue with those that elicit a more positive emotion. We validate the corpus through crowdsourcing to ensure its quality. Finally, we propose a novel neural network architecture for an emotion-sensitive neural chat-based dialogue system, optimized on the constructed corpus to elicit positive emotion. Objective and subjective evaluations show that the proposed methods result in dialogue responses that are more natural and elicit a more positive emotional response. Further analyses of the results are discussed in this paper.

Predicting Career Decision-Making Difficulties: The Role of Trait Emotional Intelligence, Positive and Negative Emotions.

The current study evaluated the relationship between positive and negative emotions, trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) and difficulties in career decision-making. We examined whether trait EI could predict career indecisiveness, a type of career decision-making difficulty, over and above the “Big Five” personality traits. We also examined the mechanism through which trait EI affected career indecisiveness by investigating the mediating role of positive and negative emotions. Survey data were collected from a sample of 600 undergraduate students in a university in southwest United States, who completed questionnaires measuring trait EI, positive emotions, negative emotions, personality traits, and career indecisiveness. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that trait EI accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in career indecisiveness that was not explained by the “Big Five” personality traits. The parallel mediation analysis revealed that positive and negative emotions partially mediated the relationship between trait EI and career indecisiveness. Using the framework of Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden and build theory of positive emotions, the study provides empirical evidence explaining the mechanism through which trait EI helps individuals cope better with challenging situations in life. Trait EI aids the elicitation of positive emotions and the down-regulation of negative emotions, which, in turn, broaden the range of thoughts and actions that come to mind, helping individuals function more effectively in the context of career decision-making. Implications for career counseling and opportunities for further research are discussed.

A Placebo-Controlled Online Study on Potential Mediators of a Pleasure-Based Positive Psychology Intervention: The Role of Emotional and Cognitive Components

While broad evidence exists that positive psychology interventions are effective in increasing well-being, less is known about the working mechanisms behind this process. We examine the impact of subjective changes in affectivity (i.e., elicitation of positive emotions) and cognitive processes (i.e., the gaining of insights) in three variants of a pleasure-based placebo-controlled online intervention (N = 509 adults). The variants were designed that they have (1) a cognitive focus, (2) an emotional focus, or (3) both cognitive and emotional foci. We assessed happiness and depressive symptoms before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and at follow-ups after two weeks, one month, and three months, and collected subjective ratings on potential working mechanisms. Findings indicated that both variants with a cognitive focus increased happiness in comparison to the control condition, whereas only those interventions that fostered the experience of positive emotions reduced depressive symptoms. Positive emotions mediated the effects of the intervention on happiness and depressive symptoms, whereas insights only mediated the effects on happiness. The findings support the important role of positive emotions in positive interventions and provide new evidence for the relevance of cognitive changes in such interventions.

The proximal experience of gratitude

Although a great deal of research has tested the longitudinal effects of regularly practicing gratitude, much less attention has been paid to the emotional landscape directly following engagement in gratitude exercises. In three studies, we explored the array of discrete emotions people experience after being prompted to express or recall gratitude. In Studies 1 and 2, two different gratitude exercises produced not only greater feelings of gratitude relative to two positive emotion control conditions (i.e., recalling relief), but also higher levels of other socially relevant states like elevation, connectedness, and indebtedness. In a third study, conducted in both the U.S. and S. Korea, we compared a gratitude exercise to another positive emotion elicitation (i.e., recalling a kind act) and to a neutral task, and again found that the gratitude exercise prompted greater gratitude, elevation, indebtedness, and guilt, but no more embarrassment or shame, than the two comparison conditions. Additionally, in all three studies, emodiversity and cluster analyses revealed that gratitude exercises led to the simultaneous experience of both pleasant and unpleasant socially-relevant states. In sum, although it may seem obvious that gratitude exercises would evoke grateful, positive states, a meta-analysis of our three studies revealed that gratitude exercises actually elicit a mixed emotional experience—one that simultaneously leads individuals to feel uplifted and indebted.

Framing Advertisements to Elicit Positive Emotions and Attract Foster Carers: An Investigation Into the Effects of Advertising On High-Cognitive-Elaboration Donations

ABSTRACT Advertisements that elicit negative emotions (e.g., guilt) have been found effective in prompting socially desirable behaviors, such as making monetary donations to charity. This study investigates whether this principle generalizes to a specific case of high-cognitive-elaboration donations: fostering a child. Results from an advertising experiment conducted with 470 respondents indicate that this is not the case. Rather, positive emotions caused stronger reactions to the advertisements, with processing motivation and preexisting attitudes playing a critical role. Implications for marketing foster care—and possibly other, similar high-cognitive-elaboration donations—include that ongoing communication and elicitation of positive emotions is essential to first form the right processing motivations and attitudes, which then more likely will lead to behavioral change on later advertising exposures.

The role of moral emotions and individual differences in consumer responses to corporate green and non-green actions

We investigate the mediating role of moral emotions and their contingency on individual characteristics in consumer responses to corporate green and non-green actions. Two between subjects experiments were conducted to test our hypotheses on samples of adult consumers. The results show that, for corporate non-green actions, various individual difference characteristics (social justice values, empathy, moral identity, self-concept) moderate the elicitation of negative moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust), which, in turn, lead to consumer negative responses (negative word of mouth, complaint behaviors, boycotting). Moreover, for corporate green actions, empathy moderates elicitation of positive emotions on gratitude, which, in turn, influences consumer positive responses (positive word of mouth, resistance to negative information, identification with the company, investment). This study adds to extant research by examining understudied “hot” moral emotional processes underlying consumer reactions toward corporate environmental responsibility and irresponsibility. Implications for marketing communication and segmentation decisions are considered.

Effects of Elicited Emotions on Cognitive Functioning of Preschool Children With Different Types of Temperament

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of elicited positive and negative emotions on cognitive functioning of preschool children with different temperament types. Emotions were elicited through presentations of video clips before children were asked to perform a series of cognitive tasks. Eliciting positive emotions generated an overall enhancement in children’s cognitive functioning, independent of their temperament. However, specific temperamental characteristics were found to be significantly related to specific cognitive functions. For example, following elicitation of positive emotions, children who were rated high on Attention Shifting performed less well on a “Gestalt Closure” task, whereas performance of children who were rated low on the same subscale was enhanced. Significant differences were found regarding the effect of eliciting emotions on children who rated intermediate as compared with those who rated high or low on several temperamental subscales. These findings are discussed within the contexts of self- and emotion-regulation.

The Positive Emotion Elicitation Process of Chinese Consumers Toward a U.S. Apparel Brand -A Cognitive Appraisal Perspective-

Emotion directly affects consumer buying behavior. This study examines Chinese consumers' emotion elicitation process toward a U.S. apparel brand in the Chinese market. Employing a cognitive appraisal theory, this study proposed and tested a conceptual model incorporating three factors of consumer global orientation as antecedents of consumer emotion and purchase intention as a consequence of emotion. Among the ten proposed hypotheses, eight were supported. Of the three antecedents of consumer emotion, exposure to global mass media and cultural openness positively increased Chinese consumers' appraisals of a U.S. apparel brand. Unlike these two antecedents, the effects of exposure to mass migration on consumer appraisals were found to be non significant. The relationships between appraisal dimensions and positive emotion were all supported. Finally, this study confirmed that positive emotions increased Chinese consumers' purchase intentions of a U.S. apparel brand. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed based on the findings.

Designing for positive disclosure: What do you like today?

This paper's premise is that technology has the potential to support the elicitation, expression and communication of positive thoughts. However, its success depends on understanding and incorporating appropriate strategies for interactive system design and development. Following in the positive psychology tradition, this paper presents two co-design studies investigating how positive thoughts can be mediated and shared. These studies involved approximately 50 participants, using paper-based questioning techniques and social–online tools that captured 151 contributions on what thoughts people like to share. The collected data demonstrated the potential for designing systems based on a prefix-based elicitation of positive emotions. Analysis of participants' contributions suggests that various messages of a predominantly positive nature can be harnessed, emphasising the importance of immediacy and situatedness in expression. Moreover, the analysis resulted in a set of design considerations for the design and development of positive expressive technologies. These considerations were used to develop a mobile application called PosiPost Me (Mobile Internet Edition) that allows users to create and share positive thoughts at any time and place. In this way, this research sets an exemplar of a design process for positive communicative systems while building on research in positive psychology, human–computer interaction and cognitive ergonomics. Relevance to industry The studies conducted showed the feasibility of proposed approach and opens new avenues for technologies aimed at positive communication and wellbeing in the mobile environment. It also offers a set of design considerations to support designers in creating such positive expressive technologies.

Persuasion and the structure of affect.

Participants viewed eight PSAs, providing data on their cognitive and emotional responses to each, as well as judgments of the perceived effectiveness of the messages. They also responded to Carver and White's (1994) BIS/BAS scales designed to measure individual differences in the behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation systems. Consistent with dual-systems theories of affect, the BIS scales predicted arousal of negative emotions, while BAS was associated with the elicitation of positive emotions. However, when predicting perceived message effectiveness, the positive affects showed variation in the sign and magnitude of the coefficients, as did the negative affects. This latter finding supports a discrete-emotions perspective. Knowledge that the two affect structures are appropriate to different conceptual domains (i.e., elicitation vs. effect) should enable researchers to formulate more precise questions regarding the role of affect in persuasion.