title: A structural model of emotions of cognitive dissonances.
abstract: Cognitive dissonance is the stress that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts simultaneously in the mind, usually arising when people are asked to choose between two detrimental or two beneficial options. In view of the well-established role of emotions in decision making, here we investigate whether the conventional structural models used to represent the relationships among basic emotions, such as the Circumplex model of affect, can describe the emotions of cognitive dissonance as well. We presented a questionnaire to 34 anonymous participants, where each question described a decision to be made among two conflicting motivations and asked the participants to rate analogically the pleasantness and the intensity of the experienced emotion. We found that the results were compatible with the predictions of the Circumplex model for basic emotions.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 369, 13560-970 São Carlos SP, Brazil. fontanari@ifsc.usp.br
authors.forename: José F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Fontanari
authors.forename: Marie-Claude
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bonniot-Cabanac
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cabanac
authors.forename: Leonid I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Perlovsky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D003657:Decision Making; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009042:Motivation; D010684:Philosophy; D057181:Pleasure / Q000502:physiology; D011336:Probability; D012660:Semantics; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult