Emotion duration

Emotions are processes that unfold over time. This implies that research on dynamic features of emotions is needed to understand how emotions operate. One key dynamic feature is emotion duration. For a long time, no research on emotion duration was conducted. However, during the last three decades, our understanding of emotion duration increased significantly. In the present chapter, I provide an overview of research on emotion duration. First, I define emotion duration and discuss the conceptualcomplexities surrounding the start and end of an emotional episode. Next, I describe studies that examined how long emotional episodes last. These studies converged on the conclusion that emotion duration is highly variable with episodes lasting for seconds, minutes, hours or even longer. Subsequently, I review research examining the mechanisms underlying emotion duration. These mechanisms include psychological processes that occur at the start of an emotional episode, as the initial appraisal of an emotion-eliciting event and intensity of the emotional response are major determinants of emotion duration. Moreover, emotion duration also depends on psychological processes that unfold during the emotional episode as dynamics in attention, appraisals and regulation strategies prolong or shorten emotional episodes. The chapter ends with directions for future research.