A Provisional Taxonomy of Subjectively Experienced Positive Emotions

Affective Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-020-00009-7 RESEARCH ARTICLE A Provisional Taxonomy of Subjectively Experienced Positive Emotions Aaron C. Weidman1 & Jessica L. Tracy1 Received: 3 September 2019 /Accepted: 11 March 2020 # The Society for Affective Science 2020 Abstract Over the past two decades, scholars have conducted studies on the subjective experience of over 30 positive emotional states (see Weidman, Steckler, & Tracy, 2017). Yet, evidence from research on the non-verbal expression and biological correlates of positive emotions suggests that people likely experience far fewer than 30 distinct positive emotions. The present research provided an initial, lexically driven examination of how many, and which, positive emotions cohere as distinct subjective experiences, at both the state and trait levels. Four studies (including two pre-registered replications) using factor and network analyses of 5939 participants’ emotional experiences, elicited through the relived emotions task, found consistent evidence for nine distinct positive emotion states and five distinct traits. At both levels, many frequently studied positive emotions were found to overlap considerably or entirely with other ostensibly distinct states in terms of the subjective components used to describe them, suggesting that researchers currently study more positive emotions than individuals experience distinctively. These findings provide the first-ever comprehensive portrait of the taxonomic structure of subjectively experienced positive emotions, with the ultimate aim of inspiring further examination of the positive emotion space at the subjective experiential as well as more biological and behavioral levels of analysis. Keywords Emotion . Positive emotion . Taxonomy . Subjective experience In recent years, numerous empirical studies have examined In contrast, studies on non-subjective components of posi- the causal antecedents, correlates, and functional conse- tive emotions (e.g., physiology, non-verbal expression, neural quences of distinct positive emotions such as awe, compas- correlates) suggest that there are likely far fewer than 30 dis- sion, gratitude, and pride (for reviews, see Shiota, Campos, tinct positive emotional states. For example, historically, many Oveis, Hertenstein, Simon-Thomas & Keltner, 2017; Tugade, in the field believed that only one positive emotion was asso- Shiota, & Kirby, 2014). A quantitative review of this literature ciated with a distinct, cross-culturally recognized non-verbal found that over 30 ostensibly distinct subjective positive emo- facial expression (i.e., happiness; Ekman & Friesen, 1971), tional states were measured or manipulated in studies reported More recent work has added to this list with a set of 5–10 in the journal Emotion from 2001 to 2011 (Weidman et al., positive emotions that appear to be expressed and recognized 2017). across cultures (e.g., amusement, awe, coyness, interest, and pride, along with happiness; Cordaro, Sun, Keltner, Kamble, Huddar & McNeil, 2018; Cordaro, Sun, Kamble, Hodder, Handling editor: Robert Levenson Monroy & Cowen, in press; Tracy & Robins, 2008), or at least within North American populations, for emotions such as con- Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article tentment and love (Campos, Shiota, Keltner, Gonzaga, & (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-020-00009-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Goetz, 2013). Similarly, when neuroscientists have proposed sets of brain systems corresponding to distinct positive emo- * Aaron C. Weidman tions, their lists have typically included relatively few states [email protected] (e.g., based on his research on rats, Panksepp has listed seeking, lust, care, and play as positive distinct emotional 1 Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 states; Panksepp, 2007; Panksepp & Watt, 2011). West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6R 1Z4, Canada Furthermore, a review of research on positive-emotion- Affective Science specific physiology led Shiota and colleagues to propose that not surprisingly, similar empirical findings have emerged for 10 positive emotion constructs represent distinct, functional compassion, which has been shown to be elicited by meek and entities (Shiota et al., 2017). Consistent with these accounts, a needy individuals (e.g., the elderly; homeless people; Oveis, study of the hierarchical structure of emotion words—in Horberg, & Keltner, 2010). In contrast, we are not aware of which participants sorted a long list of words into categories any empirical work showing that these emotions have based on semantic similarity—identified two high-level and divergent antecedents or consequences (e.g., showing that a 10–12 lower-level distinct positive emotion categories particular antecedent elicits tenderness and compassion but (Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O’Connor, 1987). Together, not nurturant love). In absence of this kind of work these various bodies of work using a range of methodological distinguishing between these conceptually similar emotions, approaches and sources of data converge on the suggestion it remains possible that researchers are using three different that there are likely to be no more than 5–12 distinct positive labels to refer to what is in fact the same subjective emotional emotions. While none of these lists of positive emotions is state. This practice could confuse readers and create the spu- likely to represent a definitive or final set, together they rious impression of a wider variety of positive emotion expe- strongly suggest that numerous scientists agree that far fewer rience than is warranted based on empirical data, which would than 30 positive emotions exist as distinct experiences. be problematic for the field. Yet prior studies have not addressed the question of how Second, arriving at a better taxonomic understanding of sub- many positive emotions are subjectively experienced as dis- jectively experienced positive emotions could facilitate subse- tinct, by which we mean positive emotions whose experience quent cross-modal analyses of the positive emotion landscape. is associated with a set of elements (i.e., thoughts, feelings, If a distinct set of subjectively experienced positive emotions is and behavioral action tendencies) that are not redundant with identified, it would be fruitful to compare this set with those elements that characterize the experience of other positive positive emotions that are distinct at the biological, behavioral, emotions. Furthermore, prior studies have not examined or physiological levels. It is of course possible that different whether those positive emotions that are subjectively distinct emotions may emerge as distinct across levels of analysis. align with the positive emotions that researchers regularly Still, comparative work identifying emotions that do show dis- treat as if they are distinct. Addressing these questions is crit- tinctness across modalities could prove useful because, histori- ical, for several reasons. First, current research findings re- cally in affective science, this has been a defining criterion for garding certain positive emotions may in fact apply to multi- considering emotions as “discrete” or “basic” in an ultimate ple emotions which have been treated as distinct but in fact are sense (e.g., Ekman, 1992). Comparative work of this nature is not. For example, compassion, nurturant love,andtenderness particularly needed in the positive emotion domain: whereas have each been conceptualized as a distinct prosocial emotion converging evidence over the past half-century has pointed to involving care and concern for dependents yet are treated as a small set of negative emotions that are distinct in subjective distinct entities in the literature (e.g., Buckles, Beall, Hofer, experience and biological or behavioral features (i.e., anger, Lin, Zhou & Schaller, 2015; Shiota et al., 2014;Goetz, contempt, disgust, embarrassment, fear, sadness, and shame; Keltner, & Simon-Thomas, 2010). Although some researchers Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Harmon-Jones, Bastian, & Harmon- may view these constructs as distinct entities, more work is Jones, 2016;Keltner,1995), the study of distinct positive emo- needed to empirically ascertain and define the boundaries tions (as opposed to the positive affect dimension;Russell& among them, given their superficial similarity. Barrett, 1999) has proliferated only since the turn of the century, Specifically, if these emotions are largely overlapping sub- with little attention paid to taxonomic questions. jective experiences, then empirical findings regarding any one Historical precedent also suggests that taxonomic work of these emotions may actually reflect shared properties providing an examination of which positive emotions are dis- among all three, potentially requiring the field to revisit its tinct at the level of subjective experience could prove genera- understanding of these states. To unpack this example further, tive both in systematizing inquiry in this domain as well as tenderness has been empirically shown to be elicited by and inspiring additional work aimed at refining the taxonomic directed toward vulnerable dependents (i.e., children) regard- structure. This was the case for the Linnaean taxonomy, a less of whether these dependents have an acute need (e.g., hierarchical classification system proposed by eighteenth cen- Hofer, Buckels, White, Beall, & Schaller, 2018;Lishner, tury biologist Carl Linnaeus in

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