Beliefs about Emotions

Hi,

This week’s email is about common beliefs we have about emotions, and how these beliefs shape our actions.

Here are the key practical points you should know (mainly from this research article):

• We differ based on whether we believe that emotions are good or bad and controllable or uncontrollable.

• These beliefs vary across factors like the type of emotion (e.g., happiness/anger), the person experiencing it (e.g., yourself/your partner), and the context (e.g., home/work).

• Beliefs about the controllability of emotions affect whether we try to engage in emotion regulation, while beliefs about the goodness of emotions affect the direction of this regulation (e.g., in terms of whether we try to suppress or prolong an emotion).

• You can try to actively change your and other people’s beliefs about emotions as needed, for example by encouraging someone to recognize that a harmful emotion of theirs is both bad and controllable.

As always, I’m happy to hear your thoughts.

Have a great week,
Itamar