2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The functional adaptiveness of emotional responses to disasters: Does horror facilitate post-disaster community rebuilding by motivating pro-social affiliative behaviors and attitudes?
Project/Area Number |
20K22270
|
Research Institution | Akita International University |
Principal Investigator |
TAYLOR Pamela 国際教養大学, 国際教養学部, 助教 (10880099)
|
Project Period (FY) |
2020-09-11 – 2023-03-31
|
Keywords | negative emotion / disaster / morbid curiosity / emotional reactivity |
Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Two experiments (N=120) examined responses to information about 3rd person harm, focusing on how different qualities of harm evoke different emotional responses. Participants read descriptions of harm, manipulated in terms of the severity of harm (moderate, severe) and the graphicness of descriptions (general, detailed) and reported their emotional responses, perceptions of abnormality, arousal, and feelings of empathy and dehumanization for victim and perpetrator. Dispositional items measured morbid curiosity (MC).
Hypotheses: H1 Severe (vs moderate) harm increases horror more than fear. H2 Graphic harm increases horror more than fear, H3 MC negatively predicts negative emotions, H4 the effect of MC on negative emotions is mediated by arousal Results: all hypotheses supported
|
Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to my teaching responsibilities as a new professor at a teaching-centered university, which last year required me to design a new course, it has been difficult to give as much time to research as desired.
|
Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will explore if morbid curiosity can be used as a reappraisal strategy to reduce feelings of horror and facilitate coping when confronted with harmful events. I will also investigate if this affects empathy and dehumanization of the victim and perpetrator of harm. I also plan to replicate the mediation of morbid curiosity’s effect on negative emotion by arousal using a different measure of arousal (blood pressure and galvanic skin response, rather than self-report).
|
Causes of Carryover |
Money was left over because I was unable to conduct as many studies as I had planned. Funds will be used to conduct experiments and present results at an international conference.
|
Research Products
(2 results)