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Hot Cognitions

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Cognitive appraisal; Evaluative cognitions

Definition

Hot cognitions (or appraisals/evaluations) are a specific type of cognitions referring to the modalities in which people process – consciously and/or unconsciously (i.e., implicitly/automatically) – the representations of their circumstances (i.e., cold cognitions), therefore being able to elicit emotional reactions (see Lazarus and Folkman 1984; Lazarus and Smith 1988; Smith and Lazarus 1990).

Introduction

Abelson and Rosenberg (1958) were the first to make the distinction between knowledge (e.g., descriptions/inferences) and appraisals/evaluations related to various facts, by proposing the terms “cold” and “hot” cognitions. Following Plutchik’s (1984) assertion that cognition evolved in the service of emotion, efforts directed towards the understanding of emotions have converged towards uncovering the role of cognitions in eliciting them and in particular of cognitive appraisals.

The Appraisal Theory

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Daniel David & Oana David

  2. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Daniel David

Authors
  1. Daniel David
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  2. Oana David
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel David .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Charlie Reeve

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David, D., David, O. (2017). Hot Cognitions. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_979-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_979-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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