Differentiating emotions reduces negative affect: Evidence from a new experimental paradigm.
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: = 52 undergraduates), an internal meta-analysis across all three experiments revealed a significant overall effect, indicating that engaging in differentiation reliably attenuated negative affect on average. Although the comparison condition does not isolate differentiation from all forms of regulatory engagement, the results are consistent with the possibility that increasing representational specificity may function as an implicitly regulatory process, although primarily White and female samples limit generalizability. This open-source paradigm facilitates further research to elucidate the process of differentiating emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Source: Emotion
DOI: 10.1037/emo0001738
Authors: Amy E. Carolus, Lisa R. Starr
Institution: University of Rochester
Language: English
Topic: Emotions and Moral Behavior
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W7204437629
FWCI:
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