The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 1 January 2000
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Motivation and Emotion
- Vol. 24 (4) , 237-258
- https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1010796329158
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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