Sighing is a common nonverbal everyday behavior thought to signal the experiencing of negative emotions. Prior research from a small-scale study suggests that observed daily expressions of sighing is associated with subclinical depression (Robbins, Mehl, Holleran, & Kasle, 2011). This paper replicates and extends these findings, hypothesizing that individual differences in negative emotionality are associated with frequency of spontaneous sighing. Study 1 (N = 320) documents a strong lay assumption that frequent sighing signals dispositional negative emotionality. Study 2 estimates the actual association between daily sighing, assessed naturalistically using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), and negative emotionality in a large, diverse, pooled sample (N = 469). Bayesian tests across six measures (neuroticism, depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue, loneliness) strongly support the null model. Together, results suggest the common intuition that people who sigh frequently experience more negative emotionality is inaccurate. Assessing whether an individual sighs more (or less) than others cannot be used to infer that they experience more negative emotions.

叹气是一种日常的非语言日常行为，被认为可以预示着负面情绪的发生。一项小规模研究的先前研究表明，观察到的日常叹气表达与亚临床抑郁症有关（Robbins，Mehl，Holleran和Kasle，2011）。本文重复并扩展了这些发现，并假设负面情绪的个体差异与自发叹气的频率有关。研究1（N  = 320）证明了一个强有力的假设，即频繁的叹气表明性格为负面情绪。研究2估算了使用电子激活记录器（EAR）进行自然评估的日常叹气与大量不同的汇总样本中的负面情绪之间的实际关联（N = 469）。贝叶斯测试涵盖六个指标（神经质，抑郁，焦虑，压力，疲劳，孤独），这强烈支持零模型。在一起的结果表明，通常的直觉是，经常叹气的人会经历更多的负面情绪，这是不准确的。评估一个人是否比其他人叹息更多（或更少），不能用来推断他们经历了更多的负面情绪。