Authors
Hannah U Nohlen, Frenk Van Harreveld, Mark Rotteveel, Ard J Barends, Jeff T Larsen
Publication date
2016/7/1
Journal
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume
65
Pages
42-51
Publisher
Academic Press
Description
It has long been debated whether attitudinal ambivalence elicits negative affect and evidence for such a link is inconclusive. Using facial EMG, we tested the idea that affective responses to ambivalence are dependent on the inconsistency of evaluations in the current situation. In a person perception task, participants were presented with positive (e.g., friendly, intelligent), negative (e.g., jealous, dominant), or positive and negative information (e.g., intelligent, dominant) about different target persons. When participants were only exposed to the information without having to respond, ambivalent information elicited the same affective response as positive stimuli, participants showed more zygomaticus (positive affect) and less corrugator activation (negative affect) than to negative stimuli (task 1). When participants had to make a choice, ambivalent information elicited the same affective response as negative information …
Total citations
2017201820192020202120222023202442626772