Subjective responses to emotional stimuli during labeling, reappraisal, and distraction
Lieberman and colleagues moved affect labelling out of the scanner and asked whether it changes what people report feeling. Across four studies, naming the emotion produced by a distressing image reduced reported distress compared with simply watching, and did so to a similar degree as two deliberate regulation strategies, reappraising the meaning of the image and distracting attention from it. The striking finding is about belief rather than effect. Participants predicted that labelling would not work, and continued to predict that it would increase their distress even after having experienced it lowering their distress. That is why the authors describe it as incidental regulation: it operates without being recognised as a strategy. A fourth study used pleasant images and found labelling dampened reported pleasure as well, which sets a limit on the technique. Naming appears to flatten emotional response in general rather than to relieve negative feeling specifically.
Lieberman and colleagues moved affect labelling out of the scanner and asked whether it changes what people report feeling. Across four studies, naming the emotion produced by a distressing image reduced reported distress compared with simply watching, and did so to a similar degree as two deliberate regulation strategies, reappraising the meaning of the image and distracting attention from it. The striking finding is about belief rather than effect. Participants predicted that labelling would not work, and continued to predict that it would increase their distress even after having experienced it lowering their distress. That is why the authors describe it as incidental regulation: it operates without being recognised as a strategy. A fourth study used pleasant images and found labelling dampened reported pleasure as well, which sets a limit on the technique. Naming appears to flatten emotional response in general rather than to relieve negative feeling specifically.
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Participants predicted labelling would increase distress and it reduced it; the prediction persisted after the benefit had been experienced.
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- Why Saying It Out Loud Makes It Feel Smaller, Why We Care
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https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023503
DOI: 10.1037/a0023503