Selective Attention To Emotional Response
Niedenthal and colleagues contend that while experiencing an emotional state, an individual selectively attends the response to stimuli that have greater emotional meaning and importance. These previously experienced emotional responses have a larger impact on the judgments and behaviors.
An individual experiencing a strong emotional state due to naturally occurring events will organize their perceptual and conceptual worlds differently from those in a neutral state. In other words: when experiencing a strong emotional state, an individual is more likely to associate the experienced emotion with the targeted objects or event(s). The stimulated person(s) is more likely to associate a wider range of objects and events that are associated with the specific emotion than would the non-stimulated person. It is important to note that emotional response categorization is context dependent in that the resulting response depends greatly on an individuals past experiences.
Read more about this topic: Paula M. Niedenthal, Emotional Response Categorization, Emotional Response Categorization Theory
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