Sometimes maintaining a positive attitude is like taking an uphill climb. When we face everyday life and problems and worries overwhelm us, we have the perception that happiness and joy are quite ephemeral while sadness makes itself at home and shows no signs of leaving.
So it’s no surprise that when psychologists at the University of Leuven in Belgium asked more than 233 students to look back and recall their most recent emotional experiences, the majority singled out sadness. Of the 26 emotions tested, including joy, pride and boredom, sadness was the most persistent. Why?
Which emotions last the longest and which are the most ephemeral?
When the researchers looked deeper into the participants’ emotional states, they found that episodes of sadness lasted an average of 120 hours. At the other extreme was shame, which lasted only half an hour. Surprise, fear, disgust, boredom, irritation and relief were also short-lived emotions.
Fortunately, the joy lasted a little longer, although only for an average of 35 hours, which contrasts with the feeling of hatred, which lasted for an average of no less than 60 hours.
When comparing different pairs of emotions, it was found that guilt was much longer lasting than shame and that anxiety lasted longer than fear.
Why does sadness last longer?
These researchers also asked people about the events that had triggered those emotional experiences and the strategy they followed to manage each of the emotions. Here a very clear pattern emerged: the most ephemeral emotions were generally preceded by an event of little importance to the person, while the most enduring emotions were triggered by more significant events.
Therefore, the most enduring emotions, such as sadness, tended to be accompanied by rumination; that is, by constantly thinking about the feelings and consequences linked to the event. We can therefore conclude that the duration and intensity of emotions is influenced not only by the meaning of the event that gave rise to them but also by the amount of time we spend thinking about it.
These results reveal something we already knew or at least suspected: we are the ones who give importance to the different situations we go through and, based on the degree of significance, we let them influence our mood more or less.
However, this research also points to the fact that we do have some control over the intensity and duration of our emotions; we are not passive responders to the environment, or at least we can choose not to be. If we continue to dwell on the negative event, ruminating over and over again on what happened, we will only increase the sadness. On the contrary, if we are able to control our thinking and learn to let go, we can make the sadness last much less.
Reference:
Verduyn, P. & Lavrijsen, S. (2014) Which emotions last longest and why: The role of event importance and rumination. Motivation and Emotion; 39: 119–127.
