Until 1997, lost luggage just sat there, ignored, while scholars focused on other subjects. Then Klaus R Scherer and Grazia Ceschi of the University of Geneva went to an airport and took a hard look at the emotions engendered by luggage loss. They used hidden cameras, microphones and survey forms to record people’s reactions to learning that their luggage was lost.Their report, Lost Luggage – A Field Study of Emotion: Antecedent Appraisal, published in the journal Motivation and Emotion, concerns 110 luggage-deprived passengers. It looks at several questions.
So begins this week?s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.