Studies // Cited work
The theory of constructed emotion: An active inference account of interoception and categorization
Barrett, L. F. (2016). The theory of constructed emotion: An active inference account of interoception and categorization.
Level D Theory doi:10.1093/scan/nsw154
What this study supports
Supports the claim that the theory of constructed emotion proposes a computational, predictive account in which emotions are constructed through interoception and categorisation rather than triggered as fixed programmes. A theoretical proposal whose central predictions are still being tested.
- Who was studied
- Not applicable: a theoretical article.
- Design
- Theory
- Level of evidence
- Cross-sectional, observational, qualitative work and narrative reviews.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
TheoreticalLevel DConfidence MODERATE
Critics, including constructionist theorists, contest whether appraisals cause emotions or are part of how emotional episodes are described and categorised, and this question remains open.
- Scope
- Theoretical debate about the causal status of appraisal.
- Caveat
- Positions differ in degree; many constructionist accounts retain a role for meaning-making that resembles appraisal.
Last reviewed · Review due · appraisal-causality-contested
TheoreticalLevel DConfidence HIGH
The theory of constructed emotion proposes that emotion categories are not triggered programmes but are constructed, in the moment, from predictions based on interoception, past experience and concepts; it builds on the idea of core affect.
- Scope
- The position as stated by its proponents.
- Caveat
- Its predictive-processing account is broad and some critics argue it is hard to falsify.
Last reviewed · Review due · constructed-emotion-theory-position