Beyond valence: Toward a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice

Abstract

Most theories of affective in¯uences on judgement and choice take a valencebased approach, contrasting the effects of positive versus negative feeling states. These approaches have not speci® ed if and when distinct emotions of the same valence have different effects on judgement. In this article, we propose a model of emotion-speci® c in¯uences on judgement and choice. We posit that each emotion is de® ned by a tendency to perceive new events and objects in ways that are consistent with the original cognitive-appraisal dimensions of the emotion. To pit the valence and appraisal-tendency approaches against one another, we present a study that addresses whether two emotions of the same valence but differing appraisalsÐ anger and fearÐ relate in different ways to risk perception. Consistent with the appraisaltendency hypothesis, fearful people made pessimistic judgements of future events whereas angry people made optimistic judgements. In the Discussion we expand the proposed model and review evidence supporting two social moderators of appraisal-tendency processes.

Fear shapes information acquisition in decisions from experience

“…This possibility would conform with appraisal tendency theories of emotions (Lerner & Keltner, 2000;Smith & Ellsworth, 1985), according to which a person's emotional state leads to a specific cognitive appraisal of the environment and, in turn, to specific behavioral reactions. Cognitive appraisals are made along several dimensions, including perceived certainty (i.e., degree of subjective certainty about what is going on in the environment), situational control (i.e., degree to which a person feels the situation is controlled by circumstances versus by a human agent, including herself), and anticipated effort (i.e., degree to which a person feels that she needs to exert effort to deal with the situation).…”

Rumination, emotion, and forgiveness: Three longitudinal studies.

“…Other investigators recently proposed a similar "matching hypotheses" regarding the relations among rumination, forgiveness, and affect (Berry, Worthington, O'Connor, et al, 2005), and it comports well with other evidence that anger is associated with approach motivation (Harmon-Jones, Vaughn-Scott, Mohr, Sigelman, & Harmon-Jones, 2004) and optimistic appraisals of risk, whereas fear leads to pessimistic appraisals of risk (Lerner & Keltner, 2000.…”

Anxious and egocentric: How specific emotions influence perspective taking.

“…Second, anxiety heightens self-focused attention (Easterbrook, 1959;Sarason, 1975), which itself can increase reliance on self-knowledge during social prediction (Fenigstein & Abrams, 1993). Third, anxiety is typically accompanied by a sense of uncertainty (Lazarus, 1991;Lerner & Keltner, 2000;Smith & Ellsworth, 1985), which itself is associated with greater reliance on accessible knowledge during judgment (Mussweiler & Strack, 2000;Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). Indeed, studies have found that enduring stressful, anxiety-inducing events-and the subjective experience of uncertainty that accompanies such events-can increase reliance on self-generated numeric anchors (Inbar & Gilovich, 2011; see also Kassam, Koslov, & Mendes, 2009).…”

“…Building on these classic appraisal theories, Lerner and Keltner (Han, Lerner, & Keltner, 2007;Lerner & Keltner, 2000 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”