The Fading Affect Bias (FAB) refers to the negative affect associated with autobiographical events fading faster than the positive affect associated with such events, a reliable and valid valence effect established by researchers in the U.S.A. The present study examined the idea that the FAB is a ubiquitous emotion regulating phenomenon in autobiographical memory that is present in people from a variety of cultures. We tested for evidence of the FAB by sampling more than 2,400 autobiographical event descriptions from 562 participants in 10 cultures around the world. Using variations on a common method, each sample evidenced a FAB: Positive affect faded slower than negative affect did. Results suggest that in tandem with local norms and customs, the FAB may foster recovery from negative life events and promote the retention of the positive emotions, within and outside of the U.S.A. We discuss these findings in the context of Keltner and Haidt's (1999) levels of analysis theory of emotion and culture. Memory, epub ahead of print published online:14th February 2014, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09658211.2014
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A Pancultural Perspective on the Fading Affect Bias in Autobiographical MemoryThe human experience is replete with personal, emotional events. The emotions associated with life events can be positive or negative, fleeting or long lasting, disruptive or soothing. Emotions are constructed, in part, by biological and social mechanisms that moderate the affective experience and its expression. Much of the research on emotions has focused on immediate consequences for thought and behavior (Barrett, Niedenthal, & Winkielman, 2005;Damasio, 2003;Forgas, 2000). However, a growing body of research has begun to examine the fate of personal events' emotions over time ). This research suggests that many emotions evidence an overall pattern of affective fading. For many events, their associated emotions become less intense with the passage of time, some gradually, others abruptly (Gibbons, Lee, & Walker, 2011;Ritchie & Batteson, 2013). Importantly, this tendency for affective fading is biased such that negative emotions, on average, fade significantly faster than do positive emotions. This pattern of affect change is the Fading Affect Bias (FAB).The evidence for such a differential fading of positive and negative affect is robust and shows demonstratively that many adults evidence a FAB. Nonetheless, the majority of the early research on the FAB involved North American samples of university students, particularly those from the United States (Walker, Vogl, & Thompson, 1997). There remains the possibility that the FAB represents a cultural phenomenon, such that it may only be present in the relatively homogeneous samples thus far examined, within the U.S. To our knowledge, no prior work has provided data that enable us to compare the FAB cross-culturally' thus, the possibility of a culture-specific effect remains open. F...
