Anhedonia and the Intentional Communication of Emotion

Abstract

This study evaluated the accuracy and expressiveness of emotional communication by college students identified as anhedonic or control ( ns = 24), based on their scores on the Physical Anhedonia Scale, using an emotional communication task and self-report indices of emotional expressiveness and self-monitoring. As expected, the anhedonic group reported significantly less emotional expressiveness in real-life social situations. However, contrary to the hypotheses, they did not differ from controls on measures from a laboratory communication task or on self-monitoring.