Daily affective experiences during forced quarantine: The moderating role of entity theory of emotion

During the pandemic of the COVID-19, quarantine has been implemented as a social distancing measure to reduce the risk of transmission. However, no studies have examined the causal relationship between quarantine and daily affective experiences. Few studies have examined the individual-level factors that may alleviate or strengthen the negative impact of quarantine on daily affective experiences. To this end, we conducted a diary study by comparing the affective experiences of people in quarantine with those of people not subject to quarantine. A total of 201 participants completed a daily questionnaire measuring their daily positive and negative affect for 14 consecutive days, after responding to questions on demographic information and entity theory of emotion in the pretest. Using hierarchical linear modeling, participants in the quarantine condition reported less daily positive affect than those in the social interaction condition. The level of entity theory of emotion was positively associated with negative affect in the quarantine condition. When the participants under quarantine believed more strongly that their emotions could not be changed, they reported higher levels of daily negative affect. These findings demonstrate the role of entity theory of emotion in explaining daily negative affect during quarantine. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).