Fine-tuned feelings, focused attention: how emotional granularity shapes our attention to national symbols

Emotional granularity—the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotional states—has been linked to adaptive emotion regulation and attentional control. However, its influence on attentional bias toward culturally salient stimuli, such as national symbols, remains underexplored. Using a dot-probe paradigm, this study investigated how positive emotional granularity (PEG) modulates attentional bias toward Chinese versus Non-Chinese images among 107 Chinese university students. Reaction times were analyzed across cue congruency (congruent vs. incongruent) and stimulus presentation durations (200 ms, 500 ms, and 1000 ms). Both categorical (high vs. low PEG) and continuous-variable analyses were performed to examine convergent effects. Across the overall sample, participants exhibited attentional vigilance toward China-related images at 200 ms and 1000 ms. Group-based analyses revealed distinct temporal patterns: individuals with high PEG showed early vigilance at 200 ms, attentional avoidance at 500 ms, and a return to baseline at 1000 ms, whereas low-PEG individuals displayed delayed vigilance emerging only at 1000 ms. Continuous-variable analyses yielded convergent trends, with higher PEG predicting reduced vigilance at 200 ms and stronger attentional engagement at 1000 ms. Positive emotional granularity dynamically modulates attention to patriotic cues. High PEG supports flexible, stage-specific attentional allocation, while low PEG reflects slower, delayed engagement. These findings extend the scope of attentional bias research beyond negative stimuli to culturally meaningful imagery and highlight emotional granularity as a key trait underlying context-sensitive attentional control.