In a recent study appearing in Cerebral Cortex, neuroscientists found that the brain shows distinct neural activity when experiencing emotions contrasting as bittersweet. The progress could help resolve a long-standing scientific debate: whether “mixed emotions” arise from unique activity in the brain, or whether we are simply oscillating back and forth between positive and negative feelings.
The mixed emotions
Mixed emotions are a common experience, but they have been scientifically underestimated for several reasons. Emotions are often thought to only exist on a spectrum from negative to positive, and it is easier to study one feeling at a time.
“It’s difficult to evoke these complex emotions in a realistic way within the laboratory,” says Jonas Kaplan, associate professor of psychology and co-author of the study.
Among key findings, the results showed that conflicting feelings elicited unique neural activity in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens areas of the brain. This activity was different from the brain activity observed when a subject reported a purely positive or negative emotion.
The researchers could also predict when someone would shift emotions. Particular brain regions, such as the insular cortex, showed significant changes when subjects reported an emotional transition.
“Not only did we find brain activity related to mixed emotions, but we found that it remained stable over time,” says Anthony Vaccaro, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Neuroendocrinology of Social Ties Lab at USC Dornsife, who he recently completed his PhD. in psychology from USC Dornsife. “You’re not ping ponging between negative and positive. It is a unique and mixed emotion for a long time.”
While study subjects watched a moving animated short film, researchers monitored their brain activity using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. The researchers chose “One Small Step” by TAIKO Studios for its ability to evoke simultaneous happy and sad feelings. After the first viewing, participants watched the video again without MRI and indicated when they experienced positive, negative, or mixed emotions. The researchers then compared these reports with MRI imaging results.
The study lays the practical foundation for future scientific research on this little-studied phenomenon, research that Kaplan says would also be useful for understanding human psychology.
“It takes a certain sophistication to sit with mixed emotion and allow yourself to feel positive and negative at the same time. Going deeper into this, exploring the benefits of being able to accept the positive and the negative at the same time within yourself, is something we think is worth studying,” she says.
Kaplan and Vaccaro will then examine how emotional reactions fluctuate in group contexts, such as watching a movie together at the theater.
Mixed emotions are more common than negative ones
Much has been written about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on negative emotions, such as increased anxiety and loneliness due to self-isolation.
While things may seem bleak, new data reveals that it’s surprisingly rare for a person to experience purely negative emotions. More commonly, people are experiencing mixed emotions instead, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Psychologists have traditionally viewed emotions as falling along a single dimension, ranging from positive (such as happy or excited) to negative (such as sad or anxious). This implies that at any moment we feel “good” or “bad”, but not both. It’s even said that positive and negative emotions inhibit each other , so if you’re enjoying your day but receive some bad news, your positive mood is supposedly replaced by a negative one.
However, an alternative view suggests that positive and negative emotions vary independently and can therefore occur simultaneously. This allows for the experience of “mixed emotions,” such as feeling happy and sad, or nervous but excited, at the same time.
There is now ample evidence of the existence of conflicting emotions. And new data reveals that they may be surprisingly common.
A study conducted by Kate Barford (author of this article) examined how conflicting emotions arise in everyday life. Across three samples of participants, Barford and his colleagues found that mixed emotions typically emerge when negative emotions intensify (such as following a negative event) and merge with ongoing positive emotions.
Therefore, negative feelings do not always extinguish positive ones, like when you turn off the light switch. Rather, they more often transform a positive mood into mixed emotions.
Interestingly, the study also found that purely negative emotions (the absence of concurrent positive emotions) are surprisingly rare. Across all three samples, participants reported purely negative emotions less than 1 percent of the time during one to two weeks of daily life. In contrast, mixed emotions were reported up to 36% of the time.
This shows that our negative emotions are rarely strong enough to overwhelm our positive ones, at least in everyday circumstances.
Currently, most of us are not faced with everyday circumstances. As the coronavirus spreads across the world, many nations have been forced into lockdown and most of us are wondering when life might return to normal. You might think that negative emotions would dominate during such unsettling times.
To find out, we surveyed 854 Australian residents about their emotional experiences at the end of March, when government restrictions were introduced. In line with widespread reports, we found that 72% of our sample were actually experiencing negative emotions.
Almost all of these people reported also experiencing positive emotions, such as joy and contentment. And only 3% of our sample reported purely negative emotions as the crisis unfolded. By comparison, about 70% of people reported experiencing mixed emotions, far more than Barford and colleagues previously found.
The high rate of mixed emotions during the COVID-19 crisis may be the result of an increase in negative emotions blending with positive ones, as Barford and his colleagues found.
Mixed emotions could also result from mixed thoughts and feelings about this difficult situation. For example, we may dislike social distancing, but approve of it for the sake of our collective health. Or we may appreciate the novelty and flexibility of changed ways of working (such as working from home), even if they can be disruptive.
Indeed, almost half of the participants in our sample reported that they enjoyed tackling some of the challenges of lockdown.
Our emotions are not simply determined by circumstances, but also by our personality.
In Barford and his colleagues’ study, individuals with lower scores in a personality trait called “emotional stability” experienced more mixed emotions. This is because these individuals were more susceptible to increased negative emotions, which merged with ongoing positive ones to create an overall bittersweet experience.
This same result emerged in our survey in the context of COVID-19. We found that the personality trait of low emotional stability was a stronger predictor of mixed emotions than other situational and demographic factors. These factors included age (younger people experienced more mixed emotions) and the extent of disruption to daily activities.
Interestingly, psychologists think that mixed emotions can have some benefits. Specifically, while purely negative emotions can lead us to disengage from our goals, conflicting emotions can prepare us to respond to uncertain situations in flexible ways, such as rescheduling our work projects or socializing via Zoom instead of in person.
There is also evidence that experiencing mixed emotions can buffer the impact of uncertainty on our well-being.
So while feelings of fear and sadness dominate the headlines, the high prevalence of mixed emotions during this pandemic could be good news for our mental health.
Develop a positive outcome from negative emotions
“People often feel guilty because society tells us that holidays should be filled only with positive emotions. But this isn’t realistic for everyone, and it’s normal to feel stressed, overwhelmed, sad, or disappointed,” says Emily Willroth, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences.
While unpleasant feelings are common during the holidays — and other times of the year — how you respond to those emotions can have an even greater impact on your overall psychological health, according to a study published in summer 2023 in the journal Emotion and co-authored by Willroth.
Willroth and collaborators found that people who habitually judge unpleasant emotions such as sadness and anger as inappropriate or negative are more likely to experience anxiety and depression than those who are more accepting of these types of emotions.
“Our research suggests that it may be helpful to accept those unpleasant emotions as normal responses to the situation that will likely pass with time, rather than judging those emotional responses as bad or wrong,” Willroth says.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean you have to accept the situations that led to those unpleasant emotions.
“It’s okay and often helpful to try to change situations that give rise to negative emotions,” says Willroth. “For example, you might make changes to a busy vacation schedule so you feel less overwhelmed, or you might set boundaries with your family to reduce feelings of sadness or anger.
Many people judge their emotions from time to time, he says. For some, however, judging their emotions may be a routine part of how they respond to them. This is where the trouble comes in.
It can be difficult to break habitual tendencies, but a good starting point is to recognize that unpleasant emotions are a natural response to many situations and can even be adaptive, Willroth says. For example, sadness signals to other people that we need their support; fear can protect us from risky situations; and anger can help us defend ourselves and others.
Other research suggests that talking about your emotions with others can be helpful, Willroth adds. Once we recognize that unpleasant emotions are natural, normal, and meant to pass, we can begin to accept them instead of judging them.
“If you find yourself judging your emotions, don’t dwell on it,” Willroth says. “If you find that you often experience intense unpleasant feelings or unpleasant feelings that last a long time and that affect your quality of life, it may be helpful to contact a mental health professional.”
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