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Theory & Psychology
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Emotional Dissonance

When the Experience of an Emotion Jeopardizes an Individual's Identity

Jeroen Jansz

University of Amsterdam, jansz{at}pscw.uva.nl

Monique Timmers

University of Amsterdam, timmers{at}pscw.uva.nl

Emotional dissonance is a feeling of unease that occurs when someone evaluates an emotional experience as a threat to his or her identity. The paper documents that the features ascribed to emotion in Western culture are likely to collide with the characteristics attributed to Western citizens. This collision results in a permanent evaluation of emotion. The paper concentrates on the level of individual experience where identity is used as a standard for evaluating emotional feelings. The argument is illustrated by some excerpts from an explorative study. The quotations indicate that the participants indeed experienced a feeling of unease when they assumed their identity was jeopardized. The last part of the paper discusses the ways in which emotional dissonance could be reduced. The interview excerpts illustrate here how the participants in our study talked about reducing the dissonant feeling.

Key Words: emotion • emotional dissonance • emotion norms • identity

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 1, 79-95 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354302121005
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