TY - JOUR
T1 - But Are You Really Happy?
T2 - The Negativity Effect in the Inference of Happiness and Unhappiness
AU - Song, Hyunjin
AU - Ybarra, Oscar
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - This research examined whether people make correspondent inferences more readily for others' expression of unhappiness than happiness. Study 1 measured people's lay theory of the range of emotional expressions that happy and unhappy people enact. We found that people perceive that a person who is unhappy has a wider range of emotional expression than a person who is happy. Participants in Study 2 inferred that another's description of his or her own unhappy life was more revealing of that person's true attitudes and feelings than another's description of his or her own happy life. Following up on these findings, Study 3 showed that people's inferences regarding another's level of happiness were more affected by situational information when the person described a happy life compared to an unhappy life. Together, these three studies point to a negativity effect in person inference that also applies to the expression and communication of happiness and unhappiness.
AB - This research examined whether people make correspondent inferences more readily for others' expression of unhappiness than happiness. Study 1 measured people's lay theory of the range of emotional expressions that happy and unhappy people enact. We found that people perceive that a person who is unhappy has a wider range of emotional expression than a person who is happy. Participants in Study 2 inferred that another's description of his or her own unhappy life was more revealing of that person's true attitudes and feelings than another's description of his or her own happy life. Following up on these findings, Study 3 showed that people's inferences regarding another's level of happiness were more affected by situational information when the person described a happy life compared to an unhappy life. Together, these three studies point to a negativity effect in person inference that also applies to the expression and communication of happiness and unhappiness.
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U2 - 10.1080/01973530701866524
DO - 10.1080/01973530701866524
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:47549094326
SN - 0197-3533
VL - 30
SP - 56
EP - 65
JO - Basic and Applied Social Psychology
JF - Basic and Applied Social Psychology
IS - 1
ER -