Emotions, fast and slow: processing of emotion words is affected by individual differences in need for affect and narrative absorption

Figures & data

Figure 1. Distribution of AAP values for words in the text that was used in the experiment. Examples of words with different AAP values are included. Words with lower AAP values (e.g. nauseous, contempt) tend to elicit more negative emotions, words with more positive AAP values (e.g. backyard, party, beautiful) elicit more positive emotions, and words with AAP values close to zero (e.g. both) are considered neutral.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for the predictors in the model.

Measure	M (SD)	Cronbach’s α
Need for Affect	5.07 (0.86)	0.79
Story World Absorption Scale	4.48 (1.04)	0.93
Author Recognition Test	6.60 (3.27)	–

Notes: Scores on need for affect and Story World Absorption Scale could vary between 1 and 7. Scores on Author Recognition Test could vary between −12 to 30. Note that these variables were centred for our analyses.

Table 2. Estimates for the linear mixed effects model predicting gaze duration.

Predictors	Estimates	SE	CI	t	p
(Intercept)	236.62	3.09	230.56–242.69	76.47	<0.001***
SWAS Score	1.68	3.05	−4.30–7.65	0.55	0.582
AAP	3.49	10.92	−17.92–24.89	0.32	0.749
AAP^2	1365.19	244.81	885.36–1845.01	5.58	<0.001***
NFA Score	2.57	3.63	−4.55–9.68	0.71	0.480
ART Score	−3.12	0.96	−4.99 – −1.24	−3.26	0.001**
Word frequency	−5.15	0.19	−5.53 – −4.78	−26.98	<0.001***
Word length	3.97	0.11	3.75–4.18	35.77	<0.001***
SWAS Score * AAP	28.11	10.40	7.72–48.50	2.70	0.007**
SWAS Score * AAP^2	−255.57	229.74	−705.86–194.72	−1.11	0.266
NFA Score * AAP	29.59	12.54	5.01–54.17	2.36	0.018*
NFA Score * AAP^2	−259.05	277.16	−802.28–284.18	−0.93	0.350

Notes: All predictors were centred for analysis. In addition, word frequency scores were log-transformed.

*p < 0.05.

**p < 0.01.

***p < 0.001.

Figure 2. (A) Prediction plot for the main effect of AAP values on gaze durations. AAP values did not significantly predict gaze durations. (B) Prediction plot for the main effect of squared AAP values on gaze durations. Higher squared AAP values (i.e. more emotional words) were significantly associated with longer gaze durations. (C) Prediction plot for the significant interaction between NFA scores and AAP values on gaze durations. (D) Prediction plot for the significant interaction between SWAS scores and AAP values on gaze durations.

Data availability statement

The data supporting the results of this study are publicly available: https://doi.org/10.34973/zb8x-xe75. The analysis script and data files supporting the results of this study are available as well: https://osf.io/64mdz/.