The differential appraisal hypothesis builds on traditional appraisal theories and proposes that emotions influence thought usage depending on which appraisal is momentarily salient (i.e., confidence/doubt or pleasantness/unpleasantness). In this sense, previous research has demonstrated that emotions associated with confidence increase reliance on thoughts to form attitudes, whereas emotions associated with doubt reduce it. The present research extends this framework to body-related judgments by examining, for the first time, two emotions highly relevant to body image: guilt, and shame. Importantly, although both emotions are negative, guilt is associated with relatively higher confidence and perceived control than shame, which is accompanied by doubt and uncertainty about the self.
Three hundred and eighty university students generated positive or negative thoughts about their body, recalled an episode of guilt or shame, completed an appraisal manipulation task, reported attitudes toward their body, and rated the validity of their thoughts. As expected, given that both emotions are negative but differ in their degree of confidence, when participants focused on the confidence/doubt appraisal, guilt (vs. shame) led to greater thought use, and, consequently, to more favorable attitudes toward the body when participants generated positive (vs. negative) thoughts about their body. In contrast, when the appraisal of pleasantness/unpleasantness was salient, thought direction did not have a significant effect on attitudes for either emotion. This relationship was mediated by the extent to which participants perceived their thoughts to be valid. These findings demonstrate that negative emotions can produce opposite metacognitive effects on body attitudes, suggesting that interventions should target not only primary cognition variables but also secondary or metacognitive ones. Specifically, treatments should focus on the appraisals accompanying emotions in order to increase the validity of positive body-related thoughts and decrease the validity of negative ones.