Preferring familiar emotions: As you want (and like) it?

Abstract

Do people want to feel emotions that are familiar to them? In two studies, participants rated how much they typically felt various emotions (i.e., familiarity of the emotion) and how much they generally wanted to experience these emotions. We found that, in general, people wanted to feel pleasant emotions more than unpleasant emotions. However, for both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, people more (vs. less) familiar with an emotion also wanted to experience it more. Links between the familiarity of an emotion and wanting to experience that emotion were not explained by the concurrent experience of familiar emotions. Also, we show that although familiar emotions were also liked more, liking did not fully account for wanting familiar emotions. Finally, the familiarity of emotions mediated the links between trait affect and the emotions people wanted to feel. We propose that people are motivated to feel familiar emotions, in part, because of their instrumental value.

Trait self‐control and beliefs about the utility of emotions for initiatory and inhibitory self‐control

“…Consistent with suggestions made by Ford and Tamir (2014), our exploratory findings showed that the emotions people considered useful were also the emotions they generally wanted to experience in their everyday lives (positive emotions: r = .30, p < .001; negative emotions: r = .46, p < .001). Consistent with suggestions made by Ford and Tamir (2014), our exploratory findings showed that the emotions people considered useful were also the emotions they generally wanted to experience in their everyday lives (positive emotions: r = .30, p < .001; negative emotions: r = .46, p < .001).…”

“…What is the relationship between emotion utility beliefs and general emotional preferences?. Consistent with suggestions made by Ford and Tamir (2014), our exploratory findings showed that the emotions people considered useful were also the emotions they generally wanted to experience in their everyday lives (positive emotions: r = .30, p < .001; negative emotions: r = .46, p < .001). The exploratory findings of Study 1 led us to focus our confirmatory Study 2 on people's beliefs about the utility of emotions and how these beliefs varied by self-control type and trait self-control, and to leave the question of why people believe that certain emotions are helpful or unhelpful for their self-control success for future research.…”

Sad as a Matter of Choice? Emotion-Regulation Goals in Depression

“…However, people also seek emotions that promote other benefits, regardless of immediate pleasure or pain (Parrott, 1993;Tamir, 2015). Likewise, people who experience more (vs. less) anger or fear are more motivated to experience anger or fear, respectively (Ford & Tamir, 2014). People with low self-esteem are less motivated to repair sad moods, partly because such moods are familiar to them (Wood et al, 2009).…”

Individual differences in emotion regulation goals: Does personality predict the reasons why people regulate their emotions?

“…Meanwhile, people higher in Neuroticism tend to experience more negative emotions, such as anger (Watson & Clark, 1992). Most research suggests that people prefer trait-consistent states (Costa & McCrae, 1980;Ford & Tamir, 2014;Lucas, Le, & Dyrenforth, 2008;Tamir, 2005Tamir, , 2009. For example, extraverts report more strongly wanting to experience positive emotions (e.g., Larsen & Ketelaar, 1989;Tsai, Knutson, & Fung, 2006), and individuals higher in Neuroticism want to feel more negative emotions, such as worry when performing a demanding task (e.g., taking a test; Kämpfe & Mitte, 2009;Tamir, 2005;cf.…”