Washington, July 6 : The intensity of emotions at any particular time could drive our responses to life's ups and downs.

For instance, emotions are useful - for example, fear tells your body to get ready to escape or fight in a dangerous situation.

But emotions can also become problematic - for example, for people with depression who can't stop thinking about negative thoughts, says Gal Sheppes of Stanford University.

"Luckily, our emotions can be adjusted in various ways," the journal Psychological Science quoted Sheppes as saying.

Sheppes and his colleagues studied two main ways in which people modulate their emotions; by distracting themselves or by reappraising the situation, according to a Stanford statement.

A picture of a snake in the grass should give you low-intensity fear, while a picture of a snake attacking with an open mouth should be more intense.

In another experiment, participants chose how to regulate their anxiety while anticipating unpredictable electric shocks, but they were told before each shock whether it would be of low intensity or of a more painful shock.

In both experiments, when the negative emotion was of low-intensity, participants preferred to reappraise - think through it, telling themselves why it wasn't so bad. But when high-intensity emotions arose, they preferred to distract themselves.(IANS)