Longitudinal and experimental investigations of implicit happiness and explicit fear of happiness

Some individuals devalue positivity previously associated with negativity (Winer & Salem, 2016). Positive emotions (e.g. happiness) may be seen as threatening and result in active avoidance of future situations involving positivity. Although some self-report measures can capture emotions of happiness-averse individuals, they are not always capable of capturing automatic processing. Thus, we examined the association between implicitly-assessed happiness and explicit (i.e. self-reported) fear of happiness in three studies. In Study 1, participants completed the Fear of Happiness Scale (FHS) and an implicit measure of emotions at four-time points over approximately one year. The implicit measure required participants to choose which emotion (i.e. anger, fear, happiness, sadness, or none) best corresponded to 20 individual Chinese characters. In Studies 2 and 3, we utilized an experimental design, implementing a mood induction to emphasise the relationship between explicit fear of happiness and implicitly-assessed happiness. Participants completed the FHS and chose which emotion they believed the artist tried to convey in 20 abstract images. Results indicated that greater self-reported fear of happiness was related to reduced implicit happiness. Findings from these studies provide compound evidence that individuals who hold negative views of positivity may process implicit happiness in a devaluative manner.