Valence or Hedonic Tone

Valence, also known as hedonic tone, determines the emotional effect of an event, object, or situation across a continuum — from intrinsic good, happiness, joy, appeal (positive valence) to intrinsic bad, sadness, anger, repulsion (negative valence). Faces, sounds, music, and art have valence. Hedonic tone refers to feelings, behaviors (approach and avoidance), goal attainment/nonattainment, or conforming/violating norms. Ambivalence is a positive/negative valence conflict. Developed over a century ago, valence theory suggests emotions with the same valence (anger-fear or pride-surprise) have a similar influence on judgments and choices. More recent theory has been projected onto specific neural levels in the corticolimbic system, which determines whether something is “valued” or perceived as pleasant/unpleasant. Also see Affect Valence and Arousal.

• Valence-overload occurs when a stimulus refers to different or contradictory valences.
• Valence-overload interference happens when the brain’s memory system can’t reliably recall prior associations of exteroceptive stimuli and their valences.