Why valence is not enough in the study of emotions: behavioral differences between regret and disappointment

• Autor(a) principal: Fructuoso Martinez,Luis
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Zeelenberg,Marcel, Rijsman,John B.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0874-20492008000200007
• topic: emotions; decision-making; valence; regret; disappointment

This paper reflects on the role of emotions in decision-making. The authors stress the limitations of a valence (“positivity” versus “negativity”) based approach. Emotions and their experiential content are synthetically exposed. Research has shown that even closely related emotions - such as regret and disappointment -, whether anticipated or experienced, have differential influences on the behavior of decision makers. This favours emotion-specific research in decision-making context, i.e., the pragmatic “feeling-is-for-doing” approach. We believe the emotional system is the primary motivational system for goal-directed behavior.