Open research questions in Emotions and Moral Behavior

What the literature leaves open

• Thus, future research should explore the relationship between context and crying manner in greater detail, considering both negative and positive crying situations. Future research should examine whether similar patterns emerge across diverse cultural contexts. , just moist eyes versus tears flowing down the cheek) indicate that crying intensity is closely linked to personality traits and mood recovery outcomes (Gračanin & Vingerhoets, 2024), suggesting that crying manner and intensity are intertwined aspects of emotional expression that should be examined together.

  Does the Crying Manner Affect Social Support Intentions? The Moderating Role of Unhelpful Social Beliefs About Crying · 2026 · DOI

• Several limitations characterize the present work. First, our findings may apply only to a specific portion of crying-over-music episodes, as song lyrics are most important in episodes marked by sadness (Cotter et al., 2019). Whereas other studies found that as many as 40% of crying-over-music episodes are associated with more positive emotions (Cotter et al., 2018, 2019), in the present dataset, few participants reported that positive emotions (e.g., joy) accompanied their tears (Hanser et al., 2022). We would expect to see more substantial differences, for example, in words expressing sadness between songs that evoke more distinct emotions, such as sadness 79 PSYCHOLOGICAL TOPICS, 35 (2026), 1, 63-85 and joy, than between songs that evoke sadness and being moved. Lyrics and personal associations are less critical to crying-over-music episodes characterized by positive emotions; instead, these feelings primarily arise from the music itself, such as its beauty. By focusing on the lyrics, our current work may be less applicable to crying as a purely aesthetic response to music listening (see e.g., Cotter et al., 2018, 2019; Miceli & Castelfranchi, 2003) and does not apply to crying in response to instrumental music. Second, the discrete emotion categories applied in this study through a Yes/No response format may not be as informative or ecologically valid as emotion scales or classes of emotions for characterizing crying-over-music episodes. Taking into consideration classes of emotion, such as those identified by Cotter et al. (2018, 2019), or emotion scales, may better reflect the existence of multiple types of music- induced sadness and the complex experience of crying over music. Third, in the present dataset, we do not have information about the context or situation in which the music was heard. We also do not know whether listeners had a specific purpose for listening to this music. A recent framework that focuses on music’s functions and situational contexts (Eerola et al., 2025) may prove valuable in the further study of music and tears. Lastly, popular music has undergone considerable changes in its acoustic and lyrical attributes in recent decades. Over the past five decades, the lyrics of some pop music genres have become simpler and more repetitive, while also becoming more negative and more frequently addressing personal topics (Parada-Cabaleiro et al., 2024). It is unclear what this means for the tear-eliciting power of music. Are the lyrics of crying songs also becoming more negative? Future studies should consider changes over time and across different genres, as this may reveal societal changes in how sadness is experienced/portrayed in lyrics and potentially how tears and those who cry are viewed.

  Song Lyrics That Make Us Cry · 2026 · DOI

• , 2019; Galla & Duckworth, 2015), the extent to which empathic responding in crisis negotiators operates in this manner remains an open empirical question. While the findings raise the possibility that trained empathic responding may be relatively robust under conditions of reduced self-reg- ulatory capacity, further research is required before drawing conclusions for training or practice.

  Ego depletion and empathy: exploring self-regulatory resource depletion in hostage and crisis negotiators · 2026 · DOI

• Limitations to this study stem from methodological, empirical, and theoretical considerations. Limitations set by the study’s methodology include the relatively small sample size, which fluctuated due to subject actors not always being able to hit all semi-scripted data points in the dialogue designed to maximize ecological validity, as well as a technological failure of one agency’s installed recording equipment, and the ECCS’s responsiveness to verbally communicated empathy only. With an average sample size of 31 across all measured variables tested, Experiment 2 is at an increased risk of reporting false negatives and missing an authentically present, a priori hypothesized effect (i.e., in the form of a type II error). The elaborate and timeconsuming experimental research design, along with the focus on a sample of the rare and restricted population of police crisis negotiators, limited the sample size possible for the research. Having said this, the number of participants included follows the tradition of more than 20 years of ego depletion research, whose landmark studies have often relied on sample sizes of comparable, and even smaller statistical power, with inter-subject designs of sample sizes between 50 and 100 participants (Ainsworth et al., 2014; Baumeister et al., 1998; DeWall et al., 2007; Muraven et al., 1998; Osgood & Muraven, 2015; Thompson & Campbell, 2004). According to Thompson and Campbell (2004), a sample of 22 participants will detect a small effect at 0.20 powered at 0.8 (beta 0.2). Still, despite sufficient statistical power, the relatively small sample size (and the geographical limitation of the sample to Germany) limits the study’s external validity to a generalizability of within the population of German crisis negotiators. Conclusions drawn for similar populations in other nations or beyond this specific population remain suggestive in nature and call for further research with larger and less geographically restricted samples to be conducted. In addition, variability in the effectiveness of ego depletion manipulations represents a further methodological consideration. Prior research has demonstrated that commonly used depletion paradigms, such as the letter-crossing task, can yield substantially different effect sizes depending on their specific implementation. For example, the inclusion or 1 3B.

  Ego depletion and empathy: exploring self-regulatory resource depletion in hostage and crisis negotiators · 2026 · DOI

• Several factors limit the generalizability of the results. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling via emails sent to a university community, resulting in a relatively homogenous group that may not represent the broader population. Furthermore, although Trieu et al. (2025) found that pain, sadness, and neutral facial configurations were recognized equally across all phenotypic groups (Asian, Black, Latino/a, and White), they also reported that the anger configuration displayed by Asian virtual agents was the least recognized among all affective states and phenotypic groups. Future studies should examine how socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., culture, ethnic group, sex, and gender) of both observers and individuals displaying the expressions shape the perception of pain and emotions. Another limitation is the lack of contextual cues to explain facial configurations. Participants received no background information, such as location (e.g., hospital, funeral), type of pain (e.g., visceral, chronic), or situations eliciting anger and sadness (e.g., unfair treatment, grief). The use of stereotyped facial configurations in virtual agents and linear transitions intended to strengthen internal validity reduces ecological validity. People are highly sensitive to the spatio-temporal dynamics of facial movements, even subtle ones, which vary by affective state (Dobs et al., 2014). Capturing natural transitions remains a challenge and could be addressed through advances in ecological momentary assessment (e.g., Harwell et al., 2024). A recency effect may also contribute to the perceived unpleasantness of the target facial configurations. Future research should test sequences of more than two affective states and isolate this effect from facial configuration duration.

  Pain Outweighs Negative Emotions in the Perception of Facial Configuration Sequences · 2026 · DOI

• Originality/value While the harmful effects of destructive leadership are well-documented, little is known about the threatening nature of DT leaders, triggering fear and defensive responses.

  Between fear and fascination: threat- and fascination-related affective responses to Dark Triad leaders and their motivational consequences · 2026 · DOI

• Impact StatementAwe, an emotion of increasing interest, has been studied with fMRI and peripheral physiology - but few studies have used electroencephalography (EEG).

  Complexity as a Potential Neurophysiological Correlate of Awe · 2026 · DOI

• A significant limitation of this study is in its use of imagining harming others in a video game as an experimental task, rather than having participants actively participate in shooting agents in a video game, or even having participants safely enact minimal harm against others in real life (e.g., ostracization games). This shortcoming limits the generalizability of results, as imagining perpetrating harm against others is not equivalent to actually doing so. Although future research should work to address this limitation, given the nature of MRI scanning and the environmental constraints that accompany it, imagining perpetrating harm against an agent in a video game clip provides sufficient efficacy in eliciting desired results. Another limitation of this study is in its operationalization of guilt and other affective moral reactions as measurable constructs. As expounded upon earlier in this report, guilt is a complex and multifaceted social emotion. However, in this study, such complexity is compressed into a single, Likert-style, self-report question, rather than a validated psychometric designed to measure guilt. Despite the fact that most individuals are colloquially familiar with guilt as a concept, a lack of clarification about what guilt specifically refers to in this experimental context leaves the door open to misinterpretation on the part of the participant about what aspect of guilt is of interest to the researcher. Future research should address this shortcoming by implementing a validated guilt psychometric such as the Shame and Guilt Scale (Marschall et al., 1994).

  Sex differences in moral guilt reactions to justified and unjustified violence: insights from psychology and neuroscience · 2026 · DOI

• Despite this study’s contribution of investigating effects related to justified and unjustified violence, further research must continue to investigate and break down boundaries and edge 30 cases within each of these conditions. In other words: does the type of justified or unjustified violence impact results, and do these new results vary by sex? Future research should investigate if the characteristics of the harmed agent, the type of weapon present, and the specific environmental context impact results in a significant manner. Similar questions remain about whether or not the medium of media significantly impacts results. That is, would a similar clip from a film or television show generate similar findings? Does taking the perspective of a person committing violence in a literary passage elicit similar results? Future research should investigate these lines of questioning by generating relevant empirical literature.

  Sex differences in moral guilt reactions to justified and unjustified violence: insights from psychology and neuroscience · 2026 · DOI

• But although emotions such as paranoia and panic are—sometimes dismissively—referred to in classical accounts of conspiracy theories and different emotions have been empirically linked to conspiracy beliefs, a comprehensive theoretical account of the emotional underpinnings of conspiracy theories is still lacking.

  Feeling the Conspiracy—Theorising the Transformation and Collectivisation of Emotions Through Conspiracy Theories · 2025 · DOI

• The study furthers understanding about how NFA influences emotional processing and contributes to research on disgust as a relatively understudied discrete emotion.

  Disgust, Need for Affect, and Responses to Microbiome Research · 2019 · DOI

• Although empathy deficits are thought to be associated with callous-unemotional (CU) traits, findings remain equivocal and little is known about what specific abilities may underlie these purported deficits.

  Callous-unemotional traits and empathy deficits: Mediating effects of affective perspective-taking and facial emotion recognition · 2015 · DOI

• Given the solid evidence compiled by attributional researchers for emotion-specific effects of emotion on motivation, I propose that future research should focus on the details of the mental mechanisms through which emotions affect motivation, and formulate five questions that could guide this inquiry.

  The Attributional Approach to Emotion and Motivation: Introduction to a Special Section of <i>Emotion Review</i> · 2014 · DOI

• The segueing emotions most readily available to those over 60 are limited to the poles of affective meaning, whereas those used by ones under age 60 are more variable.

  Age and the Experience and Management of Emotion · 2013 · DOI

• This article suggests a way to circumvent some of the problems that follow from the lack of consensus on a definition of emotion (Izard, 2010; Kleinginna & Kleinginna, 1981) and emotion regulation (Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004) by adopting a conceptual framework based on discrete emotions theory and focusing on specific emotions.

  Emotion Knowledge, Emotion Utilization, and Emotion Regulation · 2011 · DOI

• Even if one accepts Ladd and Lenz's reanalysis of survey data, there is insufficient evidence to cast aside either AIT or the hypothesis that anxiety affects the mode of political judgment.

  The Political Relevance of Emotions: “Reassessing” Revisited · 2011 · DOI

• The purpose of this study was to address these gaps in the literature, with a particular focus on investigating whether NSSI (a) regulates affective valence in addition to affective arousal and (b) serves a cognitive regulation function in addition to an affect regulation function.

  The functions of nonsuicidal self-injury: Support for cognitive–affective regulation and opponent processes from a novel psychophysiological paradigm. · 2010 · DOI

• Nevertheless, the situation becomes a little more complicated because all forms of affective habituation are limited by the fact that individuals will seek to maintain an optimal level of arousal by virtue of their sensitivity to the negative stimuli.

  Do Some of Us Habituate to Future Emotional events?/Est-Ce Que Certains D'entre Nous S'habituent a De Futurs Evenements emotionnels?/?Algunos De Nosotros Nos Habituamos a Eventos Emocionales futuros?/Gewohnen Sich Manche Von Uns an Zukunftige Emotionale Ereignisse? · 2010

• It is argued that three problems are responsible for the lack of more widespread acceptance of such theories: (1) the criticism of excessive cognitivism raised by psychologists working on affective phenomena; (2) the lack of process orientation in linking appraisal to the complex unfolding of emotion episodes over time; and (3) the lack of consensus on the number and types of appraisal criteria between theorists in this domain.

  Studying the emotion-antecedent appraisal process: An expert system approach · 1993 · DOI

• Colored photographic pictures that varied widely across the affective dimensions of valence (pleasant-unpleasant) and arousal (excited-calm) were each viewed for a 6-s period while facial electromyographic (zygomatic and corrugator muscle activity) and visceral (heart rate and skin conductance) reactions were measured.

  Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions · 1993 · DOI

• T h e present remarks will therefore be limited to a few examples which illustrate the underlying dynamics. Far from being limited to the area of emotion, extrinsic symbolic relationships probably play a role whenever one theorizes about the physiological correlates of psychological phenomena on the basis of at the present time there is still little inadequate empirical data-and other basis. The ‘unequivocal evidence’ consisted of fragmentary reports of unsuccessful exploratory experiments conducted in the U. and allu- sions to poorly documented Soviet research. This does not cast doubt on the validity of the early findings; it does, however, indicate that the controlling variables are still poorly understood.

  An Analysis of Psychophysiological Symbolism and its Influence on Theories of Emotion¹ · 1974 · DOI

• But initially, such schemata are lacking in the child, and he is forced to find a way to enable the qualitatively distinct elements of his concrete experiences to pass to a higher plane of mental activity if he is ever to be able rigorously to 50 THE EMOTIONS systematize them.

  The Emotions · 1972 · DOI

• T h e frustration-aggression hypothesis is lacking in perspective ; it confuses the meaning of actions in terms of the acting individual himself (motives, intentions, “subjective meaning”) with the meaning of these very same actions with reference (consequences, social reper- to other people cussions).

  Frustration and Aggression or Frustration and Defence: A Counter-Hypothesis · 1950 · DOI

• (Abstract) Amer Psychologist, 1949, 4, 253 14 FROMM, E Escape from freedom New York Farrar and Rinehart, 1941 15 GOLDSTEIN, K The sigmficance of psychological research in schizophrema. In S S Tomkins (ed.). Contemporary psychopathology Harvard UniT Press, 1943, 302-318 16 GOLDSTEIN, K, AND SCHEERER, M Abstract and concrete behavior Psychol Monogr, 1941, Vol 53, No 239 JAENSCH, E R Der Gegentypus Leipzig Barth, 1938 17 18 JONES, H E The galvanic skin reflex as related to overt emotional expression Amer / Psychol, 1935, 47, 240-251 19 KoFFKA, K Principles of gestalt psychology New York Harcourt Brace, 1935 20 KRECH, D, AND CRUTCHFIELD, R. S Theory and problems of social psychology New York McGraw-Hill, 1948 21 KRECHEVSKY, I Bram mechanisms and variability J comp Psychol, 1937, 2a, 121-163, 351-364 22 KRETSCHMER E Korperbau und Charakter 15th and 16th ed Berlin Springer, 1942 (Ch XIII on Experimental Type Psychology) 23 LEVINSON, D J An approach to the theory and measurement of ethnocentric ideology / Psychol, 1949, 28, 19-39 24 MURPHY, G Personality New York Harper, 1947 25 MURRAY, H E The efTect of fear upon estimates of the maliciousness of / soc Psychol, 1933, 4, 310-329 26 MURRAY, H E, and workers at the Harvard Psychological Qimc Exploraother personahties tions m personahty Oxford Univ Press, 1938 27 POSTMAN, L, BRUNER, J S, AND MCGINNES, E Personal values as selective factors in perception / abnorm soc Psychol, 1948, H, 142-154 28 RAPAPORT, D, SCHAFER, R., AND GILL, M Manual of diagnostic psychological testing II Personahty and ldeational content New York Macy Foundation, 1946 EMOTIONAL AND PERCEPTUAL PERSONALITY VARIABLE 143 29 RoKEACH, M Generalized mental rigidity as a factor in ethnocentnsm abnorm soc Psychol, 1943, 4i, 259-278 / 30 RORSCHACH, H Psychodiagnosttcs (translated by P Lemkau) man original, 1921) 1942 (Ger- 3\ ROSENZWEIG, S A dynamic interpretation of psychotherapy oriented towards In S S Tomkms ( e d), Contemporary psychopathology Harvard research Umv Press, 1943, 235-243 32 SHERIF, M The psychology of soctal norms, 1936 33 THURSTONE, L h A factorial study oj perception.

  INTOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY AS AN EMOTIONAL AND PERCEPTUAL PERSONALITY VARIABLE · 1949 · DOI

• While analysis of contemporary texts is beyond the scope of this study, it is pertinent to note that the con- temporary texts continue what is essentially the tradition of Campbell, Whately, Bain, etc. The resulting doctrine of persuasion is then one limited to the two modes of persuasion, pisteis and ethos.

  Some conceptions of emotional appeal in rhetorical theory · 1939 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Emotions and Moral Behavior

• Looking at pictures: Affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions · Psychophysiology · 1993 · 2,370 citations
• The emotion probe: Studies of motivation and attention. · American Psychologist · 1995 · 1,871 citations
• Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion. · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · 1997 · 1,230 citations
• Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one's cool. · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 2000 · 905 citations
• Explicit and implicit emotion regulation: A dual-process framework · Cognition & Emotion · 2011 · 762 citations
• Discrete emotions predict changes in cognition, judgment, experience, behavior, and physiology: A meta-analysis of experimental emotion elicitations. · Psychological Bulletin · 2011 · 503 citations
• The Varieties of Consumption Experience: Comparing Two Typologies of Emotion in Consumer Behavior · Journal of Consumer Research · 1986 · 473 citations
• Consciousness and the varieties of emotion experience: A theoretical framework. · Psychological Review · 2002 · 389 citations
• The Many Meanings/Aspects of Emotion: Definitions, Functions, Activation, and Regulation · Emotion Review · 2010 · 384 citations
• Measuring Emotional Expression with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count · The American Journal of Psychology · 2007 · 378 citations

Most recent work

• SΔϕ-59 — Affective Cost Orientation Index · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Between fear and fascination: threat- and fascination-related affective responses to Dark Triad leaders and their motivational consequences · Journal of Managerial Psychology · 2026
• Relational affect and authenticity in themed space: China’s “Uniquely Henan” · Tourist Studies · 2026
• Identity-Based Irrationality and the Goal-Directed Theory of Emotions · Emotion Review · 2026
• Emotional Self-Dissonance · Emotion Review · 2026
• Re-Assessing James: A Call to Action · Emotion Review · 2026
• Moors’ Eliminativism Cross-Examined: Why Emotions Are Not Goal-Directed Cycles · Emotion Review · 2026
• Emotions as High-Impact Decisions: A Goal-Directed Theory · Emotion Review · 2026
• Emotions and Societal Changes: The Nature and Social Functions of “Neo-Emotions” · Emotion Review · 2026
• SΔϕ-59 — Affective Cost Orientation Index: Care, Apology, Love, Hostility, Prompt Terrain, and Coercion-Laundering as TCC Gradients (v1.0, AI-Readable Package) · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026

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