Explaining away: A model of affective adaptation

Abstract

ABSTRACT—We propose a model of affective adaptation, the processes whereby affective responses weaken after one or more exposures to emotional events. Drawing on previous research, our approach, represented by the ac-ronym AREA, holds that people attend to self-relevant, unexplained events, react emotionally to these events, ex-plain or reach an understanding of the events, and thereby adapt to the events (i.e., they attend less and have weaker emotional reactions to them). We report tests of new pre-dictions about people’s reactions to pleasurable events and discuss the implications of the model for how people cope with negative events, experience emotion in different cul-tures, and other topics. People often remark about how quickly the extraordinary becomes commonplace. I think that every time I’m on amotorway at night, o