Department of Marketing at CUHK Business School, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Department of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2020 Jul;119(1):23-39. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000186. Epub 2020 Feb 10.
Engaging in an enjoyable activity is often effective in reducing or eliminating a negative mood. However, imagining this activity before deciding whether to perform it can decrease unhappy people's willingness to engage in it. The facial expression that accompanies a negative mood (and the muscles activated by the expression) can conflict with the expression that is elicited by imagining the performance of an enjoyable activity, evoking subjective feelings of difficulty of imagining it. Unhappy people misattribute these feelings of difficulty to the enjoyable activity itself, decreasing their desire to engage in the activity. The effects of metacognitive difficulty are eliminated when (a) unhappy people attribute difficulty to something other than the enjoyable activity and (b) focus their attention on the outcome of the activity rather than the process of engaging in it. Moreover, when an irrelevant factor activates smile-related features while performing the activity, the experience of difficulty is attenuated and its effect on aversion to the activity is not apparent. In contrast, unhappy people also find it easy to imagine an unenjoyable activity and consequently evaluate it more favorably after imagining it. Seven studies demonstrated the role of these metacognitive experiences and their implications for research on affect regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
从事愉快的活动通常可以有效地减轻或消除负面情绪。然而，在决定是否进行活动之前想象该活动会降低不快乐的人参与的意愿。伴随负面情绪的面部表情（以及表情激活的肌肉）可能与想象愉快活动表现时引起的表情相冲突，从而引起想象它的主观难度感。不快乐的人将这种困难感归因于愉快的活动本身，从而降低了他们参与活动的欲望。当（a）不快乐的人将困难归因于愉快活动以外的事物，以及（b）将注意力集中在活动的结果上而不是参与活动的过程上时，元认知困难的影响就会消除。此外，当无关因素在执行活动时激活与微笑相关的特征时，体验到的困难就会减轻，其对活动的厌恶的影响就不明显。相比之下，不快乐的人也发现很容易想象不愉快的活动，因此在想象之后对其评价更为有利。七项研究证明了这些元认知体验的作用及其对情感调节研究的意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。
