Fast & Variable Thinking Drives Positive Emotions
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
In Thought Speed, Mood and The Experience of Mental Motion, two Princeton psychologists argue that positive affect is generated by faster and varied thinking. That is, the more thoughts we have per unit time and the less related the thoughts are the more mental energy we generate through excitement, elation, happiness and even an increased sense of self confidence and power.
Although the authors discuss the implications for therapy (e.g. manic thinking) this is a potentially important finding for cognitive designers interested in creating artifacts that generate positive affect (mental energy).
