Transforming valences through transitive inference: How are faces emotionally dissonant?

ABSTRACT

Information that is emotionally incongruous with self-concepts can produce feelings of unease. This implies that embedding incongruous information in newly formed relational structures would have little effect on their previous emotive properties. Alternatively, Relational Frame Theory highlights the importance of contextualized stimulus-stimulus relations, where the structure of a relational series is key in determining the function of its elements. To see whether series membership can mitigate ‘dissonance’ when a salient element is employed, the present investigation trained and tested a seven-term relational series (X>A>B>C>D>E>Y) using blurred faces as stimuli. Specifically, Stimuli X, A, B, D, E and Y were blurred unfamiliar faces and Stimulus C constituted of the participant’s own blurred face, assumed to be more salient than the former. To assess how the valences of the related stimuli were transformed by relational series membership, self-report ratings and electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were collected before and after training the X>A>B>C>D>E>Y series. These pre vs. post contrasts revealed that, for unfamiliar faces, stimulus valence transformed as a function of relational structure. Conversely, the lack of difference in pre vs. post contrasts of Stimulus C, which maintained a high valence, suggest that relational series membership may not suffice to mitigate emotionally dissonant information.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional dissonance
• Frontal alpha asymmetry
• Relational frame theory
• Transitive inference
• Valence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Micah Amd http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4225-7026

Notes

1. Abstract shapes were used in lieu of naturally occurring phrases (such as “is happier than” and “is unhappier than”) given that the latter are used in everyday discourse and may not have been situationally equivalent across all the participants involved.

2. Note that while the validity of a Cz reference electrode for identifying the source of alpha activity has been contested (Hagemann, 2004), it nevertheless remains the most commonly used reference in FAA research (Amd & Roche, 2016; Coan & Allen, 2003; Huang et al., 2015) validating its employment for the present inquiry. For further details, see Footnote 2 in Amd and Roche (2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [grant number 2015/24159-4]; Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology.