The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions
Motivation and EmotionPublished 1 December 2000Open access
Barbara L. Fredrickson, Roberta A. Mancuso, Christine Branigan, Michele M. Tugade
Citations1,235
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TL;DR
Positive emotions are hypothesized to undo the cardiovascular aftereffects of negative emotions, and contentment-eliciting and amusing films produced faster cardiovascular recovery than neutral or sad films did.
Abstract
Positive emotions are hypothesized to undo the cardiovascular aftereffects of negative emotions. Study 1 tests this undoing effect. Participants (n = 170) experiencing anxiety-induced cardiovascular reactivity viewed a film that elicited (a) contentment, (b) amusement, (c) neutrality, or (d) sadness. Contentment-eliciting and amusing films produced faster cardiovascular recovery than neutral or sad films did. Participants in Study 2 (n = 185) viewed these same films following a neutral state. Results disconfirm the alternative explanation that the undoing effect reflects a simple replacement process. Findings are contextualized by Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (B. L. Fredrickson, 1998).
Keywords
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