The Theory of Constructed Emotion: More Than a Feeling

A recently published paper by van Heijst, Kret and Ploeger (2024) attempts to reconcile tworesearch traditions in the science of emotion — basic emotion theory and the theory of constructedemotion — by suggesting that the former explains emotions as bioregulatory states of the bodywhereas the latter explains feelings that arise from those state changes. This bifurcation of emotioninto objective physiological states and subjective feeling involves three misleading simplificationsthat fundamentally misrepresent the theory of constructed emotion. Our commentary identifiesthese misleading simplifications and the resulting factual errors, empirical oversights, andevolutionary oversimplifications. We then discuss why such errors will continue to arise untilscientists realize that the two theories are intrinsically irreconcilable. They rest on incommensurateassumptions and require different methods of evaluation. Only by directly considering thesedifferences will these research silos in the science of emotion finally dissolve, speeding theaccumulation of trustworthy scientific knowledge about emotion that is usable in the real world.