Mixed Emotions in TV Advertisements Are Not So Bad: An Extended Abstract

Abstract

Mixed emotions can refer to the experience of two emotions of opposite valence such as happy and sad (Larsen et al. 2001; Williams and Aaker 2002) but researchers also use this term to describe concurrent experiences of two emotions of the same valence such as fear and regret (Grasshoff and Williams 2005). A consensus does not seem to have been found on the definition of mixed emotions, and the debate continues about the possibility to feel two opposite valence emotions at the same time (Larsen et al. 2001; Oceja and Carrera 2009; Larsen and McGraw 2011; Larsen and Green 2013). Two main models oppose, Russell’s (1980; Russell and Carroll 1999) valence–arousal model and Cacioppo and Berntson’s (1994) Evaluative Space Model (ESM). The first one argues that positive and negative emotions, as two opposite ends of a bipolar continuum, are mutually exclusive like feelings of hot and cold (Schimmack 2001) and so cannot be felt at the same time. The second one contends that positive and negative emotions characterizing valence are two separable dimensions (Larsen et al. 2001) allowing, for instance, emotions of happiness and sadness to co-occur like hunger and thirst (Schimmack 2001).