Feeling happy and sad, but only seeing the positive: Poignancyand the positivity effect in attention

摘要

Poignancy is a mixed emotional experience thatoccurs in the face of meaningful endings (Ersner-Hershfieldet al. J Pers Soc Psychol 94(1):158-167, 2008). Despitedocumentation of the phenomenological component of poi-gnancy, no study to date has examined the relationshipbetween such a state and information processing. We there-fore examined the link between poignancy and attentionalpatterns using an eyetracking paradigm. To induce poi-gnancy, experimental condition participants imagined beingin a personally chosen meaningful location for a final time;control participants also imagined being in a meaningfullocation but with no ending. After, both groups were shownemotional images. Experimental condition participantslooked more at positive images relative to negative images,whereas participants in the control condition did not displaysuch a preference. Findings suggest that despite being amixed emotional experience, poignancy may produce asubsequent positivity effect in information processing.