Department of Psychology, University of Arizona.
Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona.
Can J Exp Psychol. 2021 Jun;75(2):120-125. doi: 10.1037/cep0000250. Epub 2021 Apr 12.
Verbal irony is when words intend the opposite of their literal meaning. We investigated the emotional function of irony by asking whether irony intensifies or mitigates negative feelings. Experiment 1 used ratings to assess the mental state of a speaker using irony or literal language following a negative event in either a high- or a low-emotional context. We found that regardless of context emotionality, speakers using irony were perceived as being in a less negative and less aroused mental state than speakers using literal language. In Experiment 2, we examined the time course of this process with ERPs. Initially, literal statements elicited a larger N100 than irony, regardless of context emotionality, suggesting that irony mitigates negative feelings overall. Later on, irony elicited a larger LPC than literal statements in high emotion contexts, but not in low emotion contexts. This suggests that irony required more mental state processing or/and more speaker emotion processing than literal language in emotionally loaded situations. These results indicate that whether irony intensifies or mitigates negative feelings depends on context and the point in time at which we assess its function. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
反语是指词语的字面意思与实际意图相反。我们通过要求被试者对使用反语或直白语言描述的说话者在高或低情绪语境下经历消极事件后的心理状态进行评价，来探究反语的情绪功能。实验 1 发现，无论语境的情绪性如何，使用反语的说话者被认为处于比使用直白语言更不消极和不激动的心理状态。在实验 2 中，我们通过事件相关电位（ERP）来检测这个过程的时间进程。最初，无论语境的情绪性如何，直白陈述比反语引发更大的 N100，这表明反语总体上减轻了消极情绪。后来，在高情绪语境中，反语引发的 LPC 比直白陈述大，但在低情绪语境中则不然。这表明在情绪负荷的情况下，反语比直白语言需要更多的心理状态处理或/和更多的说话者情绪处理。这些结果表明，反语是否加剧或减轻负面情绪取决于语境和我们评估其功能的时间点。
