Emotions are mental states of readiness that arise from appraisals of events or one’s own thoughts. In this article, the authors discuss the differentiation of emotions from affect, moods, and attitudes, and outline an appraisal theory of emotions. Next, various measurement issues are considered. This is followed by an analysis of the role of arousal in emotions. Emotions as markers, mediators, and moderators of consumer responses are then analyzed. The authors turn next to the influence of emotions on cognitive processes, which is followed by a study of the implications of emotions for volitions, goal-directed behavior, and decisions to help. Emotions and customer satisfaction are briefly explored, too. The article closes with a number of questions for future research.

No abstract

An investigation into whether complaining can cause increased consumer satisfaction Prashanth U. NyerIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Marketers agree that consumer complaints are useful sources of information that help marketers identify sources of dissatisfaction, and therefore should be encouraged. However, does complaining have a more direct beneficial effect? Can consumer complaining by itself cause increased satisfaction by allowing dissatisfied consumers a chance to vent their anger and frustration? An experiment was conducted on real consumers to test what effects complaining may have on changes in the consumers' satisfaction and product evaluations over a one-week period. It was found that consumers who were encouraged to complain reported greater increases in satisfaction and product evaluation compared to consumers who were not explicitly asked to complain. The changes in satisfaction and product evaluations were found to be related to the complaining intensity. The effect of complaining on actual purchasing behavior was also studied.The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at