Valuing calm enhances enjoyment of calming (vs. exciting) amusement park rides and exercise.

Abstract

Do people derive more enjoyment from activities that match how they ideally want to feel (their "ideal affect")? Affect valuation theory (AVT) predicts that they do; however, no study has directly examined whether this is the case. Therefore, the authors conducted 4 studies that examined whether valuing calm and other low arousal positive states (LAP) increased enjoyment of calming (vs. exciting) activities. In Study 1, the more participants valued LAP, the more enjoyment they recalled during calming (vs. exciting) episodes from their lives. In Studies 2-3, the more participants valued LAP, the more enjoyment they experienced during calming (vs. exciting) amusement park rides, both in the United States and Hong Kong. To assess causality, in Study 4, participants were randomly assigned to either a "value LAP" or control condition and then engaged in either low or high intensity exercise. Participants in the value LAP condition who engaged in low intensity exercise reported greater enjoyment than those who engaged in high intensity exercise; these differences did not emerge in the control condition. People's trait levels of experienced LAP ("actual LAP") were not related to their enjoyment of calming (vs. exciting) activities. Together, these findings provide evidence that people derive more enjoyment from activities that match their ideal affect. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for AVT as well as interventions aimed at enhancing well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ideal affect in daily life: implications for affective experience, health, and social behavior

“…Indeed, this may explain why people seek activities and objects that match their ideal affect. Consistent with this idea, using both correlational and experimental approaches, we found that across cultures, the more people value LAP, the more they actually enjoy calming (vs. exciting) activities such as low (vs. high) intensity exercise and calming (vs. exciting) amusement park rides (e.g., sky lift vs. free fall) in the moment, even after controlling for their global actual LAP [27]. …”

Seeing the Whole Picture? Avoided Negative Affect and Processing of Others’ Suffering

“…Previous research suggests if activities or others’ facial expressions match people’s own ideal affect (“ideal affect match”; Chim et al, 2018), people respond more positively. For example, the more people ideally wanted to feel calm, the more they enjoyed calming versus exciting rides in amusement parks (Chim et al, 2018). These findings suggest an ideal affect match influences judgments as people derive more enjoyment from activities that match their ideal affect.…”

Anger and Sadness Expressions Situated in Both Positive and Negative Contexts: An Investigation in South Korea and the United States

“…Idealized affect in turn predicts typically experienced affect ostensibly because the experiences one might choose to engage in could differ by how one would like to feel during the experience. These experience selections are reflected in the products ( Chim et al, 2018 ; Park et al, 2020 ), professional services such as doctors ( Sims et al, 2018 ), and leaders ( Tsai et al, 2016 ) that are preferred cross-culturally. Higher arousal versions are preferred in Western cultures and lower arousal versions preferred in Eastern cultures.…”