UC Riverside

People often seek out experiences that increase negative emotions. Doing so often serves instrumental purposes, even though it may come at a hedonic cost. The fact that many people consume contra-hedonic media such as forensic (true crime) media, seemingly without an instrumental payoff, poses a problem for affective science. The experience of flow, a self-reinforcing and enjoyable state, may explain the tendency for some people to approach hedonically unpleasant experiences. Here, I introduce the novel concept of emotion regulation (ER) flow, proposing that ER flow may be achieved when one meets an emotional demand with a well-matched set of emotion regulatory skills. In the pilot study (N = 283), participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess their enjoyment of forensic media in relation to traditional flow, exploratory ER flow items, and socio-emotional aspects of well-being. Further, they (retrospectively) reported their emotional experiences before, during, and after consuming forensic media. In the primary study (N = 278), I experimentally manipulated flow as part of a pretest-posttest design and used self-report and physiological indices of autonomic functioning to characterize ER flow. Results from both studies show that a) ER flow is associated with enjoying forensic media and fandom, in spite of the hedonically unpleasant experience, b) ER flow is positively associated with aspects of socio-emotional well-being, c) ER flow can be achieved from an emotional challenge, and d) ER flow is likely characterized by parasympathetic dominance at rest and during the activity, although not reactively to the activity. Overall, results support ER flow as a novel concept with many benefits worthy of further exploration.