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The social functions of positive emotions
Laura Sels1, Anh Tran2, Katharine H Greenaway2,
Lesley Verhofstadt1 and Elise K Kalokerinos2
Emotions unfold in the context of social interactions and
relationships, where they serve social ends. In this review, we
discuss recent research on the social functions served by
positive emotions. We identify three functions of positive
emotions: intimacy, impression, and influence functions.
Intimacy functions refer to the benefits individuals acquire in
improving their bond with others. Impression and influence
functions follow from the information that others derive from
positive emotion expressions. Positive emotions can therefore
be used in social contexts to achieve goals such as maintaining
social standing or enhancing motivation in others to achieve
important goals.
Addresses
1
Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of
Psychology and Educational Sciences, UGhent, Belgium
2
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Parkville Campus,
Melbourne, Australia
Corresponding author: Sels, Laura (laura.sels@ugent.be)
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2021, 39:41–45
This review comes from a themed issue on Positive Affect
Edited by Henk van Steenbergen, Disa Sauter, Blair Saunders and
Gilles Pourtois
For a complete overview see the Issue and the Editorial
Available online 22nd January 2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.12.009
2352-1546/ã 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction and background
Functional accounts of emotion explore why we have
emotions and what purposes they serve [1]. Because
emotions are primarily experienced, expressed, and reg-
ulated in response to other people [2], these functions are
often social in nature. In particular, socio-functional
accounts of emotion unpack the functions emotions serve
in social contexts. Different taxonomies of the social
functions of emotions have been proposed. For instance,
Keltner and Haidt distinguished between social functions
at the individual, dyadic, group, and cultural level [3], and
Keltner and Kring distinguished between informative,
evocative, and incentive functions [4]. These models
highlight how emotions can, for instance, help coordinate
social interactions and solve social problems [3,4].
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However, these socio-functional accounts generally focus
on negative emotions. It is rare that researchers explicitly
focus on the social functions of positive emotions, which
we define here as emotions that feel good to the indi-
vidual [5]. This is surprising, because as the research we
review here demonstrates, positive emotions serve many
social functions. An exception to this is the work of Shiota
et al. [6], in which they outline different functions of
positive emotions that achieve goals likely to emerge at
different stages of relationships: those occurring early in
relationships (e.g. identifying potential partners); those
occurring in established relationships (e.g. developing
and maintaining a connection); and those that require
coordination between existing relationship partners (e.g.
enactment of collective agency). As such, the approach of
Shiota et al. considers specific goals and specific types of
relationships, and how these interact to give rise to
discrete emotions that assist with goal attainments.
In this article, we examine the latest positive emotions
research through a socio-functional lens, taking a broad
view that considers a range of higher-order motives (e.g.
managing one’s impression; building intimacy with
others) relevant to different sorts of relationships; and
we consider how positive emotions in general can serve
these functions. We provide an up-to-date view of the
field, reviewing research from a broad range of disciplines
(including social, organizational, relationship, and clinical
psychology, among others). From this recent research, we
extract an overarching typology, aiming to parsimoniously
capture the broader social functions of positive emotions.
Although we sometimes discuss distinctions between
discrete positive emotions, and these distinctions are
important to obtain a full understanding of the functions
of emotions [7], we generally discuss the overarching
category of positive emotions. This is in keeping with
the research we review, which often examines positive
emotion generally rather than discrete emotions specifi-
cally. We identify three central functions of generalized
positive emotion, outlined in Table 1, and highlight
fruitful avenues for future research.
In formulating these functions we considered both
emotion experience and expression. Emotion expres-
sions are the verbal and nonverbal behavioral changes
that often accompany an emotional experience.
Although emotion experiences can have important
social consequences, emotion expression may be of
greatest significance in shaping social interactions, as
individuals only have access to the behavior shown by
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2021, 39:41–45
42 Positive energy

Table 1 gullibility, such as uncritically accepting interpersonal mes-

Descriptions, examples, and references for the four social func- sages or vulnerability to deception [14].
tions of positive emotions

Function Description Examples References

In addition, positive emotions appear to motivate proso-
cial orientations and behaviors [15,16]. Experience sam-
Intimacy Social benefits to  Greater marital [54]
relationship quality satisfaction [12]
pling studies have shown bidirectional associations
accrued by  Enhanced [11] between positive emotions and prosociality, with positive
experiencing and affiliation emotions predicting increases in prosocial behavior, and
expressing positive  Interpersonal prosocial behavior in turn predicting subsequent positive
emotion responsiveness
emotions [15]. In terms of specific emotions, experiencing
Impression Social benefits to  Positive [28]
and expressing gratitude is associated with different types
one’s reputation interpersonal [27] of prosocial behavior, including honesty [17], generous
accrued by evaluations [30] and reciprocal behavior [18], larger charity donations and
experiencing and  Higher perceived transfers in trust games [19], and reduced competitive
expressing positive social status
behavior [20]. Relatedly, the emotion of awe, which
emotion  Greater self-
monitoring causes people to focus on the bigger picture, encourages
people to contribute to efforts that benefit more than
Influence Social benefits in the  Interpersonal [40] themselves. As such, studies have found that awe
form of influencing emotion [42] increases willingness to donate money [21] and boosts
the thoughts, regulation [46]
affiliation and altruism motivations [22]. These types of
feelings, and  Inspiring better
behavior of other performance positive emotions appear to enhance feelings of indebt-
people by  Creating edness, especially in interdependent cultures and when
experiencing and collective action experienced towards someone important [23]. This is in
expressing positive
part because these types of positive emotions predict
emotion
greater feelings of social connectedness with others
[24]. Taken together, this research suggests that both
the experience and expression of positive emotions serve
their interaction partner, not their partner’s internal a key function in promoting intimacy.
feelings [8]. However, research often measures experi-
ence and not expression, and we cite evidence that both Impression functions
positive emotion experience and expression inform the Emotions, and emotion expressions in particular, provide
three proposed social functions of intimacy, impression, information to other people [25]. As a result, positive
and influence. emotions can be expressed in social contexts to achieve
social impression goals, for example by helping individu-
als establish their social standing, or manage the impres-
Intimacy functions sion they make on others.
Positive emotions improve interpersonal relationship
quality, likely because they promote social connectedness Positive emotion expressions can improve one’s reputa-
and prosocial behavior. In particular, positive emotion tion in the eyes of others [26]. For example, winners who
expression is often perceived as an affiliative signal — one express positive emotion are perceived as higher in social
designed to project warmth and willingness to cooperate standing than winners who suppress positive emotion
[6,9]. Consequently, people who experience and express [27]. Among patients with borderline personality disor-
more positive emotion tend to be good at maintaining der, greater display of positive emotion is associated with
relationships (e.g. Ref. [10]). less negative impressions at zero acquaintance [28]. In
organizational contexts, leaders’ positive emotion expres-
Positive emotion experience supports intimacy by promot- sion affects how charismatic and effective they appear in
ing behavior that encourages reciprocation and bonding. the eyes of followers [29].
For instance, in intimate relationships, positive emotions
experienced during an interaction were positively associ- Specific positive emotions can be deployed as part of a
ated with more intended responsiveness (i.e. wanting the broader impression management strategy. Gratitude
partner to feel understood, validated, and cared for) [11]. expression is associated with both self-monitoring and
Expressing positive emotion appropriately also makes one social intelligence, suggesting that it might sometimes be
appear more likeable and affiliative [12], and mimicking used in a deliberate attempt to establish oneself in the
positive emotion expressions improves social interaction good graces of another person [30]. This research also
quality [13]. However, the intimacy cultivated through showed that practicing gratitude can lead to changes in
positive emotions can also be exploited by others. For impression management skills, and specifically in social
example, experiencing positive emotions is associated with intelligence.

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Positive emotion experience may also assist people in
making a good impression. For example, feelings of pride
are associated with achievement and perseverance actions
that make people appear high status [31]. In the work-
place, people who experience more positive emotion
receive better job performance evaluations [32]. In aca-
demic settings, students who feel more positive emotion
tend to be awarded better grades [33]. In all, these
findings suggest that both experiencing and expressing
positive emotion can improve the impression one makes.
Influence functions
Because people use emotions as social information to
infer others’ motivations and to predict their future
behavior, one’s emotions can also be leveraged to influ-
ence the behavior of others [25]. Positive emotion expres-
sions appear non-threatening and approachable to other
people. In part because of this approachability, positive
emotions can be used to influence others, for instance by
inspiring effort, altering emotions, or promoting collective
action.
Much of the evidence for the influence function comes
from the organizational literature, where positive emotion
experience has been shown to enhance motivation and
productivity in others. For instance, in the workplace,
group members not only feel better when leaders are in a
positive mood, but also coordinate better and expend less
effort on a task than groups with leaders who are in a
negative mood [34]. Indeed, emotion contagion — the
transfer of emotion experience from one individual to
another — is a mechanism by which leaders influence
their followers [35].
Influence benefits also extend to positive emotion expres-
sion. Being thanked when helping a colleague has been
shown to increase in work engagement the following day
[36]. Positive emotion expression may also temper the
sometimes detrimental influence of negative emotions on
others’ behavior in work contexts. For example, strategi-
cally expressing anger when others violate important
norms has been shown to enhance individuals’ coopera-
tion and overall work effectiveness, but only when it is
paired with strategic positive emotion display, while
anger alone backfires without the display of positive
emotions [37].
In addition to affecting others’ behavior, positive emo-
tions can be used to modify others’ emotional state (i.e.
extrinsic interpersonal emotion regulation [38,39]). Peo-
ple can engage in extrinsic regulation to make others feel
better, such as expressing empathy to improve others’
mood [40], or to net instrumental benefits. For example,
people sometimes try to increase or decrease happiness in
other people if they expect such happiness to have
benefits for the other or the self [41]. In one example,
deliberate attempts by driving instructors to improve a
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The social functions of positive emotions Sels et al. 43
learner driver’s mood also improved task performance by
the learner [42].
At the group level, the specific postive emotion of hope is
associated with the motivation for change and support for
collective action in both socially advantaged and disad-
vantaged groups [43,44]. Both feeling and expressing
hope improves intergroup attitudes and reduces inter-
group conflict [45,46]. However, for disadvantaged
groups, hope for harmony with more advantaged out-
groups can undermine the motivation to strive for equal-
ity [47].
Implications and future directions
Past work on the social functions of emotions has often
targeted negative emotions, meaning that positive emo-
tions have been overlooked (for an exception focusing on
specific positive emotions, see Refs. [6]). With the iden-
tification of three social functions of positive emotions, we
hope to prompt more targeted research in this area. In this
regard, our review demonstrates the potential value of
expanding beyond the oft-studied intimacy functions to
the comparatively less studied impression and influence
functions.
We identified three relatively broad social functions of
positive emotions that could be further or differently
specified in future research. We grouped research by
the specific function served, which differs from other
conceptualizations that are based on the context in which
the emotion occurs (e.g. see Ref. [3]) or the specific
relationship task and relationship type involved [5]. We
chose to review the research in this way because it
demonstrates the diversity of functions served by positive
emotions beyond simply feeling good, higlighting the
myriad ways in which positive emotions shape and are
shaped by our social world.
Of course, these functions are not entirely distinct from
one another. Specifically, they all serve to coordinate
social interactions (in line with [3] and [5]) and to
acquire personal benefits. However, they do so in dif-
ferent specific ways, by improving relationship quality
(intimacy), one’s own reputation (impression), or by
impacting others (influence). Further, these functions
may be overlapping in the sense that a given emotion
may serve multiple functions at once. One intriguing
possibility is that people may aim to experience a
positive emotion in pursuit of one function (e.g. inti-
macy – to feel closer to others) but may aim to express
that emotion in pursuit of another function (e.g. impres-
sion – to increase respect). Such a possibility is in line
with a burgeoning literature on emotion goals (e.g. see
Refs. [48,49]), the emergence of which presents an
opportunity for future work to investigate people’s
motivations for experiencing and expressing positive
emotions.
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2021, 39:41–45
44 Positive energy
Beyond considering positive emotions in general, differ-
entiation among discrete positive emotions deserves fur-
ther attention [6]. As a first step, it was recently demon-
strated that distinguishing between positive awe (the
absence of threat appraisal processes) and negative awe
(the presence of threat appraisal processes) results in
different associations with prosociality [21]. Further, spe-
cific emotions might not promote each social function.
For instance, schadenfreude, a positive emotion in the
sense that it feels good to the individual (who experiences
pleasure at another’s misfortune), might not promote
intimacy as much as other positive emotions, but is mainly
expected to serve influence and impression functions
[50]. This research suggests that specific positive emo-
tions can have diverse functions, and accounting for
specific emotions will allow a fuller understanding of
their social functions.
On the topic of nuances within positive emotions, broadly
construed as emotions that feel good [5], it is important to
acknowledge that this hedonic account can sometimes
encompass negatively valenced emotions which might
feel good because they improve interpersonal relation-
ships. Nostalgia, for instance, is an ambivalent emotion
that is both positive and negative [51]. To the extent that
reliving nostalgic memories is deliberate and not sponta-
neous, nostalgia can still feel good because it increases
social connectedness and improves wellbeing [51,52].
These findings highlight the complexity in capturing a
holistic picture of positive emotions and the functions
they serve [5].
Just as for emotions in general, the social functions of
positive emotions are likely to vary by culture. For
instance, recent research shows that the social effects
of expressing gratitude in close relationships are culturally
dependent. Expressions of gratitude elicit more negative
emotions in close others among people from Eastern
cultures than among people from Western cultures. In
contrast, not receiving gratitude from close others elicits
more negative emotions in individuals in Western com-
pared to Eastern cultures [53]. Better understanding
these cultural differences is an area ripe for future
research.
Concluding remarks
Positive emotions are inherently social. Thus, to move
positive emotion science forward, it is necessary to take an
explicit focus on their social functions. We have reviewed
recent research on this topic, and proposed intimacy,
impression, and influence functions. This socio-func-
tional account of positive emotion helps to organize the
recent literature and offers promise for novel insights in
understanding emotions.
Conflict of interest statement
Nothing declared.
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2021, 39:41–45
Funding
The third and fifth authors are supported by grants awarded
by the Australian Research Council (FF190100300;
DE180100352).
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Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2021, 39:41–45