Neo-emotions: An Interdisciplinary Research Agenda

2023/09/03 by Marci D. Cottingham · 1 voice · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Emotional Labor in Professions #Emotions and Moral Behavior

paper · doi:10.1177/17540739231198636

openalex publication_date 2023/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/24

Abstract

Emotion research that attends to the cultural dynamics of affective life remains underdeveloped. I outline an agenda for an understudied phenomenon that can orient emotion researchers to the situated, cultural practices of affective life: Neo-emotions. Neo-emotions, when situated within macro-level processes and cultural events, illustrate the constrained yet creative practices that social actors use to address the disconnect between one's emotional vocabulary and dynamic environment. As such, neo-emotions are analytically rich cultural practices that can be empirically explored through sociological, anthropological, historical, and psychological inquiry. I discuss a range of neo-emotions, including doomscrolling, eco-grief, and Black joy, their social antecedents (digitalization, disasters/crises, and social movements) and methodological implications for an interdisciplinary agenda.

Citations

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Cited by

• ‘You can't live in fear all the time’: Affective dilemmas in Youth's discussions on climate change in Norway

Discussions

• Marci D. Cottingham has an interesting new paper in Emotion Review discussing a range of 'neo-emotions', e.g. doomscrolling, eco-grief, and Black joy. 'Neo-emotions: An Interdisciplinary Research Ag [bsky, 7 points, 0 comments]

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