Social Representations and Emotions

Abstract. A number of authors consider that exploring the interconnections between social representations and emotions is essential. However, both empirical and theoretical contributions have focused on specific aspects of these concepts and thus offer a narrow view of their articulation. Moreover, these are published in different languages, making it difficult to provide an overview of the current knowledge on the subject. Consequently, this article adopts a broader approach through a literature review articulating social representations and emotions. This is based on a search of various databases, conducted between March and April 2020 and using the terms “social representation” and “emotion” (or affect, mood, or feeling) in their singular and plural forms, both in French and in English. As a result, 41 references explicitly mentioned both terms and were published in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish were collected. This brought to light two lines of inquiry that structure this field of research: the first focuses on the role of emotions in the emergence, dynamics, and functioning of social representations, while the second explores how social representations determine emotions or emotional processes. These perspectives will be discussed from both a theoretical and methodological standpoint with the aim of highlighting new avenues for research.