Thinking about labeling like a perceptual choice highlights concrete mechanisms. When people pick an emotional word they gather pieces of evidence from bodily sensations, memories, and context until a threshold is reached. This framework helps explain why some people label emotions quickly and accurately while others struggle, and why labeling can change the felt intensity or the way emotions are shared with others. Sequential sampling models give researchers tools to separate speed, accuracy, and the influence of prior expectations on the labeling process.
For anyone curious about growth, relationships, or inclusion, this perspective connects to everyday life. Understanding how we arrive at emotional words may improve communication, support mental health, and create environments where diverse emotional experiences are recognized. The full article explores these links in detail and raises questions about how improving labeling skills could expand human potential and strengthen social bonds.
Affect labeling can shape how emotions are experienced and shared, with important consequences for both well-being and relationships. While decades of research have explored the impact of articulating emotions through language, the labeling process itself has received limited attention until recently. We suggest that affect labeling can be considered analogous to perceptual decision making, as both involve accumulating evidence toward a decision. Building on perceptual theories of emotion, we explore how this perspective provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying affect labeling. We then review existing research applying sequential sampling models to affect labeling, illustrating how it accounts for the different processes involved in labeling and may explain mechanisms underlying individual differences in the labeling process.