The unconscious unfolding of emotions

Abstract

How do emotional reactions arise? We argue that emotional information processing and the resulting responses unfold from being global to specific: Initial emotional responses are typically based on general, positive‐negative evaluations, whereas later emotional responses are based on more specific, fine-grained information processing. Global, positive‐negative reactions may influence people’s mood states, whereas detailed, fine-grained emotional reactions may cause specific emotions such as fear, disgust, or happiness to arise. Our view also entails that global and specific processing may both occur unconsciously. In this chapter we briefly discuss theories of emotion that inspired us, we provide empirical evidence for our global-to-specific unfolding view, and we explain consequences of our view for research on facial emotional expressions, imitation, and general mood states.