Associations Between Cognitive Appraisals and Emotions: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

The core premise of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion is that emotions are produced from our interpretation of what we experience. Compared to other major theoretical frameworks in emotion, the appraisal perspective emphasizes the centrality of these cognitive interpretations in giving rise to emotions. Decades of research have yielded numerous studies that broadly agree on the centrality of the appraisal process, but differ in the details, with different lists of appraisal dimensions, terminology, and only qualitative predictions for the relationship between select appraisals and emotions. Despite hundreds of published empirical studies, the field still lacks a systematic, quantitative meta-analysis that can establish support for the detailed relationships between appraisals and emotions. Here, we conducted a mixed-effects meta-analysis of 2,634 effect sizes from 309 studies across 251 reports, covering 47 distinct appraisals and 63 emotions, to assess the evidence for 853 specific appraisal–emotion relationships. We find that 75.0% of previously hypothesized relationships between appraisals and emotions were statistically significant, with an average moderate-to-large effect size (mean r =.33). We also highlight many previously unpredicted relationships, with an average small-to-moderate effect size (mean r =.27), which can form the basis for future confirmatory studies and theory refinement. As a summary, we provide a taxonomy of appraisal dimensions, as well as appraisal profiles of these emotions, which could be useful to affective scientists, clinical psychologists, and applied behavioral researchers. Taken together, this review documents the state of knowledge in the field and generates new hypotheses for future research.