Was the "Diana Effect", the outpouring of grief in Britain after the death of the Princess of Wales, being driven by a psychological factor? It may have come more from a human need to feel and express emotion than grief at the loss of Diana as a person, according to a psychologist.
Dr Gregory Maio, of Cardiff University, surveyed 88 students to assess whether they were Dr Spock types, who displayed little emotion and were highly analytical, or "passionate" individuals who wore their hearts on their sleeves and revelled in experiencing strong emotions. He described an affinity for emotion as the "need for affect". Dr Maio used questionnaires to gauge the individual's level of "affect" on a sliding scale. He also asked how the volunteers responded during Diana's funeral.
Unexpectedly, his research suggested that being analytical did not imply that one scores low on emotion. In fact there was a small but significant correlation between being good at problem solving and measuring well on the "affect" scale.
Not surprisingly, however, he also found that if you had a high "affect" rating you were also probably deeply involved in Diana's funeral. Individuals in this group either watched hours of the event on television or delivered floral displays.
His data indicated that more women than men were found near the upper end of the "affect" scale, and that more of the total group sought out rather than avoided opportunities for feeling or expressing strong emotions. His research could not, however, explain why this might be so.