Gasper Karen
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, 518 Moore Building, University Park, PA 16802 USA.
Affect Sci. 2023 Aug 21;4(3):458-462. doi: 10.1007/s42761-023-00214-0. eCollection 2023 Sep.
For affective science to advance, researchers will need to develop a better understanding of neutral affect. At first glance, neutral affect may seem uninteresting to some affective scientists because the goal is to investigate hedonic experiences, not the presumed absence of them. This failure to fully consider and examine neutral affect, however, limits the field's potential for new discoveries. In this paper, I discuss how a greater understanding of neutral affect can inform researchers' views of valence, subjective well-being, and behavior. I define neutral affect and discuss evidence indicating that neutral affect is a commonly felt state that occurs independently of positive and negative affect. These data suggest that to understand the entirety of the affective landscape, researchers should move beyond traditional measures of valence and consider how positive, negative, and neutral affective states might inform their phenomenon of interest. I then illustrate how neutral affect might be a key, albeit complex, influence on subjective well-being. I also discuss how neutrality might be a fundamental and unique predictor of inaction. If affective scientists want to fully understand how feelings operate and function, it is essential that they explore the possibility that neutral affect might hold some of the essential clues needed to solve their affective puzzle.
为了推动情感科学的发展，研究人员需要更好地理解中性情感。乍一看，中性情感可能对一些情感科学家来说并不有趣，因为目标是研究享乐体验，而非假定的无情感体验状态。然而，未能充分考虑和研究中性情感限制了该领域的新发现潜力。在本文中，我将讨论对中性情感的更深入理解如何能为研究人员有关效价、主观幸福感和行为的观点提供信息。我定义了中性情感，并讨论了表明中性情感是一种独立于积极和消极情感而普遍存在的状态的证据。这些数据表明，为了理解情感全貌，研究人员应超越传统的效价测量方法，并考虑积极、消极和中性情感状态如何能为他们感兴趣的现象提供信息。然后我将说明中性情感尽管复杂，但可能是对主观幸福感的关键影响因素。我还将讨论中立性如何可能是不作为的一个基本且独特的预测因素。如果情感科学家想要全面理解情感如何运作和发挥作用，那么他们探索中性情感可能包含解决情感谜题所需的一些关键线索的可能性至关重要。
