Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem

Jordi  Quoidbach; June  Gruber; Moira  Mikolajczak; Alexsandr  Kogan; Ilios  Kotsou; Michael I. Norton

Article | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem

by Jordi Quoidbach, June Gruber, Moira Mikolajczak, Alexsandr Kogan, Ilios Kotsou and Michael I. Norton

Abstract

Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce—and demonstrate the benefits of—emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience. Two cross-sectional studies across more than 37,000 respondents demonstrate that emodiversity is an independent predictor of mental and physical health—such as decreased depression and doctor's visits—over and above mean levels of positive and negative emotion. These results remained robust after controlling for gender, age, and the five main dimensions of personality. Emodiversity is a practically important and previously unidentified metric for assessing the health of the human emotional ecosystem.

Keywords: Health; Diversity; Emotions;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Quoidbach, Jordi, June Gruber, Moira Mikolajczak, Alexsandr Kogan, Ilios Kotsou, and Michael I. Norton. "Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, no. 6 (December 2014): 2057–2066.

Article | Journal of the Association for Consumer Research | April 2019

Rituals and Nuptials: The Emotional and Relational Consequences of Relationship Rituals

Ximena Garcia-Rada, Ovul Sezer and Michael I. Norton

Four studies reveal the benefits of relationship rituals: couples with relationship rituals report more positive emotions and greater relationship satisfaction and commitment than those without them. We show that rituals are crucial for understanding consumption practices in romantic relationships. Using a sample of romantic dyads, we identify a novel moderating role of mutual agreement, such that both members of a couple must agree that they have a ritual: different couples can see the same consumption behavior (e.g., paying for a weekly date night) as either a ritual or a routine, and the benefits accrue only to those couples who jointly view it as a symbolically meaningful ritual. We contribute to the literature on rituals by empirically documenting the relationships between rituals, specific emotions, and relationship satisfaction, and by demonstrating that the same sequence of actions can have different psychological effects due to the role of mutual agreement. Finally, we contribute to research on consumers’ shared experiences by suggesting a novel mechanism for committing to such experiences: relationship rituals.

Keywords: rituals; Relationship Satisfaction; Relationships; Satisfaction; Spending; Behavior; Perception; Emotions;

Citation:

Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Ovul Sezer, and Michael I. Norton. "Rituals and Nuptials: The Emotional and Relational Consequences of Relationship Rituals." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 4, no. 2 (April 2019): 185–197. View Details

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Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem

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