ArticlePsychological research2023
Happiness feels light and sadness feels heavy: introducing valence-related bodily sensation maps of emotions.
Article in Psychological research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Observing positive and negative social touch triggers topographically distinct physical and emotional reactions in the body.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The effort of maintaining the defensive wall: is there a link between defense mechanisms and vitality?BMC psychiatry · 2026Observational
- Researching Body Perception: Toward an Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative Interdisciplinary Approaches to Address the Multiplicity of Bodily Experiences.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Why Do Student Perceptions of Teachers' Condemning of the Bullying and Empathy-Raising Lead to Intention to Stop Bullying? The Role of Emotions.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2025Article
- What is Balance? A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Evaluation of Psychometric Properties of the Farsi Version of the Work-Related Affective Feelings Scale.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2025Article
- Mental gravity as a translational framework for mental health promotion.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Mental Gravity: Depression as Spacetime Curvature of the Self, Mind, and Brain.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Bodily sensation mapping (BSM) is a recently developed self-report tool for the assessment of emotions in which people draw their sensations of activation in a body silhouette. Following the circumplex model of affect, activity and valence are the underling dimensions of every emotional experience. The aim of this study was to introduce the neglected valence dimension in BSM. We found that participants systematically report valence-related sensations of bodily lightness for positive emotions (happiness, love, pride), and sensations of bodily heaviness in response to negative emotions (e.g., anger, fear, sadness, depression) with specific body topography (Experiment 1). Further experiments showed that both computers (using a machine learning approach) and humans recognize emotions better when classification is based on the combined activity- and valence-related BSMs compared to either type of BSM alone (Experiments 2 and 3), suggesting that both types of bodily sensations reflect distinct parts of emotion knowledge. Importantly, participants found it clearer to indicate their bodily sensations induced by sadness and depression in terms of bodily weight than bodily activity (Experiment 2 and 4), suggesting that the added value of valence-related BSMs is particularly relevant for the assessment of emotions at the negative end of the valence spectrum.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.