What Software Engineering Can Learn from Research on Affect in Social Psychology

Social psychology researchers have, traditionally, focused on the construct of thinking rather than on feeling. Since the beginning of the 21st century, social science researchers have, however, increasingly explored the effects of affect. Their work has repeatedly recognized that affects play a crucial role in determining people's behavior. In this short paper, we argue that software engineering studies on affect would benefit from using more of the knowledge that social science researchers have acquired. Without accounting for their findings, we risk re-inventing the wheel. Also, without a profound understanding of the complex interplay between social context and affect, we risk creating overly simplistic solutions that might have considerable long-term adverse effects for software engineers.