Feelings don't come easy: studies on the effortful nature of feelings.
We propose that experience of emotion is a mental phenomenon, which requires resources. This hypothesis implies that a concurrent cognitive load diminishes the intensity of feeling since the 2 activities are competing for the same resources. Two sets of experiments tested this hypothesis. The first line of experiments (Experiments 1-4) examined the intensity of participants' feelings as they performed a secondary (backward counting) task. The results showed that the intensity of both negative and positive feelings diminished under a cognitive load and that this attenuation of feeling was not mediated by either distraction from external stimuli or demand characteristics. In the second set of experiments (Experiments 5-6), load was created by asking the participants to focus on the feelings. Even in these circumstances, the participants who were under load reported a lower intensity of feeling than those who were not under load. We explain these findings in terms of a resource-dependent model of emotional experience. Possible implications of our findings for a broader class of phenomenological experiences are succinctly discussed.
Kron
Assaf
A
Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. assaf.kron@mail.huji.ac.il
Schul
Yaacov
Y
Cohen
Asher
A
Hassin
Ran R
RR
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis