Negative emotional events that people ruminate about feel closer in time.

ABSTRACT: Rumination is intrusive, perseverative cognition. We suggest that one psychological consequence of ruminating about negative emotional events is that the events feel as though they happened metaphorically "just yesterday". Results from three studies showed that ruminating about real world anger provocations, guilt-inducing events, and sad times in the last year made these past events feel as though they happened more recently. The relationship between rumination and reduced temporal psychological distance persisted even when controlling for when the event occurred and the emotional intensity of the event. Moreover, angry rumination was correlated with enhanced approach motivation, which mediated the rumination-distance relationship. The relationship between guilty rumination and distance w

SUBMITTER: Siedlecka E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4351980 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature