Contact high: Mania proneness and positive perception of emotional touches

Cogn Emot. 2012;26(6):1116-23. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2011.633987. Epub 2012 Mar 8.

Abstract

How do extreme degrees of positive emotion-such as those characteristic of mania-influence emotion perception? The present study investigated how mania proneness, assessed using the Hypomanic Personality Scale, influences the perception of emotion via touch. Using a validated dyadic interaction paradigm for communicating emotion through touch (Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, & Jaskolka, 2006), participants (N=53) received eight different touches to their forearm from a stranger and then identified the emotion via forced-choice methodology. Mania proneness predicted increased overall accuracy in touch perception, particularly for positive emotion touches, as well as the over-attribution of positive and under-attribution of negative emotions across all touches. These findings highlight the effects of positive emotion extremes on the perception of emotion in social interactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Bipolar Disorder / psychology*
  • Emotions*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Individuality
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Nonverbal Communication / psychology*
  • Personality Inventory / statistics & numerical data
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / statistics & numerical data
  • Risk Factors
  • Social Perception*
  • Touch Perception*