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A well-known parable contrasts two men: one man builds his house upon solid rock, the other builds his house upon shifting sand. This allegory conveys the importance of a solid foundation. The effort by Gervais & Fessler (G&F) to integrate emotional theories through creation of a new construct is laudable. However, the available empirical evidence reveals that contempt shares features with other emotions and offers a shaky foundation for building “sentiment” as a construct.
Is contempt different?
Categories emerge in science based on assessment of correlated properties (Boyd 1991). To determine whether a new category is warranted, studies must demonstrate that a member has properties different from existing categories. Do the features identified by G&F suggest contempt is different from other emotions?
1. Contempt is intentional. All emotions are “about” or directed toward specific events or objects, including sadness at a failure or anger at an insult. Emotions are “intentional states,” directed toward the world (Neu 2000; Solomon 2008). Indeed, evidence reveals this is the hallmark feature of emotions (Beedie et al. 2005; Kaplan et al. 2016; Lench et al. 2015; Verduyn et al. 2011).
2. Contempt involves enduring evaluation. Emotions were once defined as relatively brief and contrasted with longer-lasting moods (Eich et al. 2000; Russell 2003). An unfortunate consequence of this definition was the resultant supposition that emotions are ephemeral – there and then gone. The evidence does not support this...