Exploring the Emotional Experience During Instant Messaging Among Young Adults: An Experimental Study Incorporating Physiological Correlates of Arousal
Instant messaging (IM) is a highly diffused form of communication among younger populations, yet little is known about the emotional experience during IM. The present study aimed to investigate the emotional experience during IM by drawing on the Circumplex Model of Affect and measuring heart rate a...
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Published in | Frontiers in psychology Vol. 13; p. 840845 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
04.04.2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Instant messaging (IM) is a highly diffused form of communication among younger populations, yet little is known about the emotional experience during IM. The present study aimed to investigate the emotional experience during IM by drawing on the Circumplex Model of Affect and measuring heart rate and electrodermal activity as indicators of arousal in addition to self-reported perceived emotional valence. Using an experimental design, we manipulated message latency (i.e., response after 1 min versus 7 min) and message valence (positive versus negative response). Based on data collected from 65 young adults (50% male;
= 23.28,
= 3.75), we observed arousal as participants' electrodermal activity levels increased from the time a fictitious peer started typing a response to the receipt of that response, especially in the delayed condition. Electrodermal activity levels also increased in both the positive and the negative message conditions. No changes were observed for heart rate. Participants' self-report perceived emotional valence revealed that positive messages were evaluated as more pleasant and the peer as more available, while no difference in the self-report was found for message latency. These findings shed light on the emotional experience during IM by adding valuable insights on the physiological processes underlying the anticipation of social reward, but only during delayed IM exchange that can be observed in Human-Computer-Interaction. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Marko Tkalcic, University of Primorska, Slovenia This article was submitted to Human-Media Interaction, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Reviewed by: Gabriela Marcu, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania; Dawn Good, Brock University, Canada |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 1664-1078 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.840845 |