Boosting or dampening positive feelings was linked to opposite emotional shifts

A 14-day study found that different ways of managing positive emotions were associated with different short-term changes in how people felt.

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

Researchers tracked 159 emerging adults five times a day for 14 days, asking about their emotions and the strategies they used to manage positive feelings. Participants also completed a questionnaire at the start of the study.

Greater emotional intensity was associated with more use of positive-emotion regulation strategies, regardless of whether the emotions were positive or negative. Strategies aimed at increasing positive emotions were linked to improvements in emotions, while strategies aimed at reducing them were linked to the opposite change. Anhedonia—a reduced ability to feel pleasure—did not consistently explain why these patterns differed between people.

How emotions shifted

The study found that people were more likely to use strategies for managing positive emotions when they were experiencing more intense emotions, whether those emotions were positive or negative. Using strategies to increase positive emotions was linked to improved emotions over short periods, while using strategies to reduce positive emotions was linked to the opposite pattern. Anhedonia did not consistently account for differences between individuals in these associations.

Why daily emotion control matters

Positive emotions are relevant to mental health, but this study suggests that managing them in daily life is not a single process. Strategies intended to increase or reduce positive feelings were associated with opposite short-term emotional changes, highlighting the need to study positive-emotion regulation in everyday settings and to examine its possible mental-health implications more closely.

Evidence and caveats

The findings come from a 14-day experience-sampling study in which 159 emerging adults reported their emotions and emotion-regulation strategies five times a day. The researchers used preregistered dynamic statistical models to examine changes over time. Because the study measured naturally occurring experiences rather than randomly assigning strategies, the associations do not establish that a strategy caused an emotional change. The sample was relatively small and focused on emerging adults, so the findings may not apply to all age groups. The abstract does not report the sizes of the associations.

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