Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Article
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem

By: Jordi Quoidbach, June Gruber, Moira Mikolajczak, Alexsandr Kogan, Ilios Kotsou and Michael I. Norton
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce—and demonstrate the benefits of—emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience. Two cross-sectional studies across more than 37,000 respondents demonstrate that emodiversity is an independent predictor of mental and physical health—such as decreased depression and doctor's visits—over and above mean levels of positive and negative emotion. These results remained robust after controlling for gender, age, and the five main dimensions of personality. Emodiversity is a practically important and previously unidentified metric for assessing the health of the human emotional ecosystem.

Keywords

Health; Diversity; Emotions

Citation

Quoidbach, Jordi, June Gruber, Moira Mikolajczak, Alexsandr Kogan, Ilios Kotsou, and Michael I. Norton. "Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, no. 6 (December 2014): 2057–2066.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Michael I. Norton

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • July 2022
    • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals

    By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
    • April 2022
    • Journal of Consumer Research

    Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

    By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton
    • October 2021
    • Journal of Consumer Psychology

    Communicating Resource Scarcity and Interpersonal Connection

    By: Grant E. Donnelly, Anne V. Wilson, Ashley V. Whillans and Michael I. Norton
More from the Authors
  • When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
  • Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton
  • Communicating Resource Scarcity and Interpersonal Connection By: Grant E. Donnelly, Anne V. Wilson, Ashley V. Whillans and Michael I. Norton
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College