Sensory emotion regulation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.01.008

Abstract

Decades of evidence reveal intimate links between sensation and emotion. Yet, discussion of sensory experiences as tools that promote emotion regulation is largely absent from current theorizing on this topic. Here, we address this gap by integrating evidence from social-personality, clinical, cognitive-neuroscience, and animal research to highlight the role of sensation as a tool that can be harnessed to up- or downregulate emotion. Further, we review evidence implicating sensation as a rapid and relatively effortless emotion regulation modality and highlight future research directions. Notably, we emphasize the need to examine the duration of sensory emotion regulation effects, the moderating role of individual and cultural differences, and how sensory strategies interact with other strategies.

Section snippets

The senses: a (surprisingly) often overlooked emotion regulation modality

The taste of ice cream soothes a broken heart.

The sound of electronic music energizes an athlete before a big game.

The sight of a wondrous piece of art helps put one’s problems in perspective.

The smell of baking bread evokes a sense of pleasure.

The touch of a loved one’s hand eases anxiety after a stressful day at work.

Throughout history, cultures around the world have turned to their senses to manage emotions. Ancient Chinese civilizations used aromatic essential oils to treat insomnia [1],....

Sensation and emotion are inextricably linked

Sensation allows us to quickly detect information about our physical surroundings [14]. Without it, we would be incapable of successfully navigating the world; gone would be our ability to discern a friendly greeting from a fire alarm, a paved street from a pothole, or salubrious fruit from rotten milk.

Although the precise number of sensory modalities we have is an ongoing topic of debate [15], a common pathway governs how they operate at a broad level. Environmental stimuli activate sensory....

Harnessing sensation to regulate emotions

A key element of our argument is that sensation can be harnessed as a tool that people deliberately wield to manage their emotions. This suggests that sensation does not only activate emotion passively, as when a person stumbles on a negative scent or sound while walking down a city street. It implies that our sensory apparatus can also be volitionally activated to shape emotional experiences. In this section, we review crossdisciplinary evidence supporting this assumption for each of the five

Beyond regulating to ‘feel better’

In sum, evidence across disciplines suggests that sensation can be strategically harnessed to upregulate positive and downregulate negative emotion. Yet, there are also instances in which people use sensory stimuli to achieve other regulatory goals. As just one example, consider research indicating that people strategically choose to listen to certain kinds of music to upregulate negative emotion. Tamir and colleagues found that people who were preparing to play a confrontational game, in which... 

Sensation: a relatively effortless tool for emotion regulation?

Many traditionally studied emotion regulation strategies (e.g., acceptance, reappraisal, and expressive suppression) require mental effort; in other words, cognitive control is required to effectively implement them [65,66]. However, a growing body of work suggests that people also employ more effortless routes to emotion regulation that bypass the need for cognitive control [5,67,68]. One of the advantages of utilizing relatively effortless tools is that they increase the likelihood that...

Synthesis and moving forward

Extant research indicates that: (i) the process of sensation is inherently emotional; (ii) sensation-driven emotion can be deliberately harnessed; and (iii) sensation relatively effortlessly activates emotional processes. Together, this work suggests that sensation constitutes a tool that people can use to deliberately manage their emotions.

Despite this evidence implicating sensation as a regulatory tool, prominent emotion regulation models do not explicitly discuss this possibility. Here, we...

Concluding remarks

Throughout history, humans have leveraged the senses to modify which emotions they feel, their intensity, and their duration. Over the past two decades, research has made great strides in advancing our understanding of emotion regulation. Here, we seek to enrich contemporary thinking on this topic by highlighting sensation as a potentially effortless and effective gateway to emotion regulation. To this end, we integrate knowledge from diverse disciplines and across levels of analysis. Several...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.01.008

Highlights

• Sensation and emotion are inextricably linked.

• Interdisciplinary evidence indicates that strategically activating each of the five major sensory modalities (i.e., sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch) can increase positive emotion and decrease negative emotion.

• Sensation offers a rapid and relatively effortless path to emotion regulation.

• More research is needed to elucidate how, for whom, and in what contexts sensation can maximally benefit emotional wellbeing.