Positive affect, intuition, and feelings of meaning.
Joshua A Hicks, David C Cicero, Jason Trent, Chad M Burton, Laura A King
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology June 2010 DOI: 10.1037/a0019377 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study (three studies) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 604 |
| Population | Participants in three studies: 352 in Study 1, 211 in Study 2 (football fans and individuals not directly affected by Hurricane Katrina), and 41 in Study 3 |
| Key findings | Positive affect and intuitive information processing interacted to predict feelings of meaning across all three studies. Intuitive individuals in a positive mood recognized coherent linguistic triads more accurately than other participants. The authors interpret these results as indicating that individual differences in intuitive processing shape the relationship between positive affect and cognition. |
Abstract
Subjective rationality, or the feeling of meaning, was identified by William James (1893) as a central aspect of the non-sensory fringe of consciousness. Three studies examined the interaction of positive affect (PA) and individual differences in intuitive information processing in predicting feelings of meaning for various stimuli and life events. In Study 1 (N = 352), PA and intuition interacted to predict understanding for ambiguous quotes and abstract artwork. In Study 2 (N = 211), similar interactions were found for feelings of meaning for fans after their football team lost a conference championship game and for individuals not directly affected by Hurricane Katrina in events surrounding the hurricane. In Study 3 (N = 41), induced PA interacted with individual differences in intuition in predicting accuracy for coherence judgments for loosely related linguistic triads. Intuitive individuals in the positive mood condition recognized coherent triads more accurately than did other participants. Results are discussed in terms of the role of individual differences in intuitive information processing in the relationship of PA to cognition.