Sadder but Wiser? Effects of Negative Emotions on Risk Perception, Driving Performance, and Perceived Workload

Traditional affect research has frequently used a valence dimension—positive and negative states. However, these approaches have not discriminated the effects of distinct emotions of the same valence. Recent findings have indicated that different emotions may have different impacts even though they belong to the same valence. The current study consists of a simulated driving experiment with two induced affective states to examine how sadness and anger differently influence driving-related risk perception, driving performance, and perceived workload. Thirty two undergraduates drove under three different road conditions with induced sadness, anger, or neutral emotions. Participants in both affect conditions showed significantly more errors than those in the neutral condition. However, only participants with induced anger reported significantly higher perceived workload than participants with neutral. Results are discussed in terms of affect mechanisms and design directions for the in-vehicle emotion regulation system.