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Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior

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Abstract

Past research has documented the many psychological and behavioral benefits of negative emotion differentiation, that is, the degree to which one can identify, distinguish, and describe specific negative feeling states. Drawing on Affective Events Theory, we argue that negative emotion differentiation affects how individuals react to a need-laden affective event (i.e., being in a situation where one is asked for some assistance). Specifically, we posit that individuals high in negative emotion differentiation will be more adept at interpreting their negative emotions as arising from others' needs (i.e., moral emotions) and regulating them through helping behavior. We tested this basic premise in two studies conducted in East Asia – a field study involving working adults in a general work setting and a quasi-experiment involving a student sample. In both studies, we examined the role of negative emotion differentiation in how individuals respond to negative emotions facing a need-laden affective event. The results supported our predictions, as high negative emotion differentiation weakened the negative relationship between general negative emotions and subsequent helping behavior (Study 1) and strengthened the positive relationship between negative moral emotions and helping behavior (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP20K13555 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 71832006.

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  1. College of Business, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Sophia Soyoung Jeong & Alexandra Henderson

  2. Global Discovery Program, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Yuanyuan Gong

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  1. Sophia Soyoung Jeong
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  2. Yuanyuan Gong
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Appendix 1 Measurement for negative emotion differentiation

Appendix 1 Measurement for negative emotion differentiation

Please look at the pictures or news titles in the left column and indicate the degree to which each of 11 emotion adjectives described your current emotional state. For example,

If you saw the clock and feel a great deal of anxiousness and a little bit of alert at the moment, then you will circle “4”for “anxious” and “2”for “alert”, and “1”for the rest of the adjectives that you have no feelings for.

Now please rate the following pictures carefully.

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Jeong, S.S., Gong, Y. & Henderson, A. Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior. Asia Pac J Manag 40, 1429–1458 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-022-09819-8

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