Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity is a fundamental component of emotional responding. It is not clear, however, whether positive emotional states are associated with differential ANS reactivity. To address this issue, we conducted a meta-analytic review of 120 articles (686 effect sizes, total N = 6,546), measuring ANS activity during 11 elicited positive emotions, namely amusement, attachment love, awe, contentment, craving, excitement, gratitude, joy, nurturant love, pride, and sexual desire. We identified a widely dispersed collection of studies. Univariate results indicated that positive emotions produce no or weak and highly variable increases in ANS reactivity. However, the limitations of work to date – which we discuss – mean that our conclusions should be treated as empirically grounded hypotheses that future research should validate.

自主神经系统 (ANS) 活动是情绪反应的基本组成部分。然而，尚不清楚积极的情绪状态是否与不同的 ANS 反应有关。为了解决这个问题，我们对 120 篇文章（686 个效应量，总 N = 6,546）进行了元分析审查，测量了 11 种引发积极情绪（即娱乐、依恋、爱、敬畏、满足、渴望、兴奋、感激）期间的 ANS 活动、喜悦、滋养的爱、骄傲和性欲。我们确定了广泛分散的研究集合。单变量结果表明，积极情绪在 ANS 反应性方面没有产生或产生微弱且高度可变的增加。然而，迄今为止工作的局限性——我们所讨论的——意味着我们的结论应该被视为基于经验的假设，未来的研究应该加以验证。