Does emotional inertia correlate with well-being indicators?
Higher emotional inertia, particularly of negative emotions, is associated with lower well-being and may indicate increased vulnerability to depression.
Previous studies have linked higher emotional inertia (i.e., a stronger autoregressive slope of emotions) with lower well-being. We aimed to replicate these findings, while extending upon previous research by addressing a number of unresolved issues and controlling for potential confounds. Specifically, we report results from two studies (Ns = 100 b) emotional inertia correlated more consistently with negative indicators (e.g., depressive symptoms) than positive indicators (e.g., life satisfaction) of well-being; and c) these relationships were independent of individual differences in mean level and variability of emotions. We conclude, in line with recent findings, that higher emotional inertia, particularly of NE, may indicate increased vulnerability to depression.
Koval et al. (Fri,) studied this question.