Chris Bell

Chris Bell

Chris Bell is a researcher and co-author of the 2001 study of urban legends and emotional selection.

Who they are

The work of Chris Bell reaches this site through the paper listed below. The name is tied to Emotional Arousal.

Key papers

Heath, C., Bell, C., & Sternberg, E. (2001). Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1028-1041. What it reports: Three studies of urban legends. With informational factors such as truth controlled, people were more willing to pass on stories that stirred stronger disgust; people preferred to pass on the highest-disgust version of randomly sampled legends; legends with more disgust motifs were distributed more widely on urban legend websites.

Key ideas

Emotional Arousal: The level of activation that comes with a feeling, separate from whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.

Sources

  1. Heath, C., Bell, C., & Sternberg, E. (2001). Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1028-1041.