What phenomenon describes people making incorrect inferences about the causes of their emotions?

The concept being described is the Misattribution of Arousal, which refers to the process through which individuals incorrectly assign the source of their emotional arousal. This phenomenon occurs when a person experiences physiological arousal due to one context and then misinterprets that arousal as being connected to a different situation, person, or emotion.

For example, if someone experiences increased heart rate and sweating after exercising and then sees an attractive person, they might mistakenly attribute their physical state to feelings of attraction toward that person instead of recognizing it as a residual effect from their workout. This misattribution can lead to misunderstandings about one’s emotional responses and can affect interpersonal interactions and perceptions.

Understanding this phenomenon is crucial in social psychology as it highlights the complexity of human emotions and how easily people can confuse their feelings based on the situational context. The other options refer to different psychological concepts, such as emotional displacement (redirecting emotions), emotional contagion (catching emotions from others), and cognitive dissonance (the discomfort felt when holding conflicting beliefs), but do not specifically address the misattribution of the source of emotional arousal.