Second Thoughts, Second Feelings: Attenuating the Impact of Threatening Narratives Through Rational Reappraisal

Abstract

Two experiments tested hypotheses, derived from dual-process theory frameworks, concerning the attenuating effects of analytic system activation on emotion and cognitive judgments made after exposure to threatening narratives. In Experiment 1, after reading an emotionally intense news story, those whose rational system was activated by evaluating the story’s probative value reported less intense emotions than those whose rational system was not so activated. Reporting emotional responses to the story before or after making probative value judgments had no effect on the probative value judgments. In Experiment 2, rationally activated individuals reported less intense emotions than those who were activated experientially by listing emotions experienced by the story’s victim. Rational system activation also significantly reduced estimates of the problem’s seriousness and victimization risk relative to both those who were experientially activated and those who were not explicitly activated. The asymmetrical impact of the rational and experiential systems on affective and cognitive judgments is discussed in terms of the dynamic interaction between the two processing systems.