Wikipedia

Draft:Emotions as Social Information (EASI) Model

  • Comment: Because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, we need notability here. So we need evidence that the model is notable within the genre of psychological models. If you look at the other entries within the Wikipedia Category of Psychological models they are all well established, well used, well documented models or process mechanisms. At the moment there are 4 sources, two are from the originator, so not independent. Of the other two, one of them, Alkhadher, does use the Model as a construct for their research, and gives significant coverage. The other source, Lerner, has a broader review of this area, it refers to van Kleef, but not to the model directly and only in passing to their broader analysis. The 2 van Kleef sources can be used for verifying the model, but we need better sourcing that this concept has a notable role in this field.
    Also, it would be helpful (but not the reason for the decline) that these sources, which are all online, are linked with URLs. DOI can be used for this in conjunction with https:citer.toolforge.org/ - then our bots will be able to fill the URLs with more information over time. ChrysGalley (talk) 08:51, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

The Emotions as Social Information (EASI) model was developed by Gerben A. Van Kleef. It is a theoretical framework that describes how emotional expressions can influence others' judgments and behavior during social interactions.[1]

The model proposes that emotional expressions provide information to others, which may influence their social decision making.[1]

Although the EASI model was developed by Van Kleef, it draws on a broader body of research in social psychology that examines emotions as sources of information in social decision making. Reviews of this literature describe how emotional expressions may influence others through cognitive inferences and affective reactions, depending on contextual and motivational factors. [2]

Main assumptions of the model

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The model outlines several core assumptions regarding social decision making.[3]

Social decision making situations are often characterized by uncertainty:

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Individuals often lack complete information about others' goals or intentions and may therefore rely on additional cues, such as emotional expressions, to interpret the situation. [3]

The interpersonal effects of emotion depend on the situation:
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While in cooperative situations, emotional expressions are more likely to influence social decisions through emotional reactions, in competitive situations, people are more likely to use others’ emotions as strategic information to guide their actions. [3]

Two main psychological pathways

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According to the EASI model, emotional expressions may influence observers through different psychological processes:

Inferential processes:

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Observers may draw cognitive inferences from others' emotional expressions, for instance: anger may indicate frustration and blaming, or happiness may indicate satisfaction. Such inferences can help individuals make sense of the social situation and guide their responses. [1][3]

Affective reactions:

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Emotional expressions may also elicit affective reactions in observers. In some cases, people experience emotions similar to those expressed by others, a process often referred to as “emotional contagion”. In addition, emotional expressions can influence observers’ moods or their feelings toward the expresser, which may shape behavior without deliberate or conscious reasoning. [1][3]

These two pathways have been highlighted in broader reviews of emotion and decision making research as key mechanisms through which emotional expressions affect social behavior. [2]

Moderators

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The EASI model suggests that the relative influence of inferential and affective processes may vary depending on contextual and motivational factors:

Cooperative versus competitive settings:

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The cooperative or competitive nature of the situation shapes how emotional expressions are processed and how strongly each pathway is associated with behavioral responses. In cooperative settings, effects are often described as being more closely related to affective reactions (e.g., contagion and mood-related processes), whereas in competitive settings they are more closely related to strategic inferences drawn from others' emotions. [3]

Information processing (epistemic motivation):

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The EASI model proposes that deeper, more deliberate processing may be associated with greater reliance on inferential processes, whereas more superficial processing may be associated with affective reactions. In the 2010 formulation, this is discussed as epistemic motivation- the willingness to invest effort in reaching an accurate understanding, which is influenced by both stable tendencies and situational constraints (e.g., time pressure, fatigue, power differences).[3]

Social-relational factors:

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Social-relational factors (e.g., relationship type, cultural display rules, whether the emotion is directed at the person vs. the situation) may influence perceived appropriateness of emotional displays, which in turn may shape observers’ reactions and behavior.

Applications and research areas:

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Research informed by the EASI model has examined how emotional expressions influence social judgments and behavior across various contexts, including negotiation, leadership, team processes, customer service and perceptions of fairness. Empirical studies drawing on the model have explored how observers interpret others' emotional expressions and how such interpretations shape social decision making in both cooperative and competitive settings.

Empirical research has applied the EASI framework in experimental studies examining how others' emotional expressions influence observers' judgments and perceptions in social situations, such as procedural justice. For example, a 2023 study found that emotional expressions affected participants' perceptions of fairness in ambiguous and unambiguous contexts as described by the EASI model. [4]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Van Kleef, G. A. (2009). How emotions regulate social life: The Emotions as Social Information (EASI) model. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(3), 184–188.
  2. 1 2 Lerner, J. S., Li, Y., Valdesolo, P., & Kassam, K. S. (2015). Emotion and decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 799–823.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Van Kleef, G. A., De Dreu, C. K. W., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2010). An interpersonal approach to emotion in social decision making: The Emotions as Social Information model. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 42), 45–96.
  4. ↑ Alkhadher, O. H., Gadelrab, H. F., & Alawadi, S. (2024). Emotions as social information in unambiguous situations: The role of emotions on procedural justice perception. Current Psychology, 43, 5753–5764.

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