Abstract
Verduyn and colleagues meta-analyse emotional episode duration — most emotions last minutes to hours, with systematic differences across emotion categories.
Verduyn, P., Delvaux, E., Van Mechelen, I., Tuerlinckx, F., & Van Coillie, H. (2009). Cognition & Emotion, 23(7), 1319–1334. DOI
Key findings
- Duration variance — Emotional episodes are not instantaneous — most last minutes to hours depending on category.
- Emotion-specific tails — Sadness and guilt show longer tails than surprise or disgust in recalled episodes.
- Intensity-duration link — Higher peak intensity associates with longer persistence in several categories.
- Measurement frame — Recalled episodes bias toward memorable peaks — lab studies show shorter mean durations.
Limits
Meta-analysis of heterogeneous designs — duration definitions differ across studies; recalled vs experience-sampling methods do not fully converge.
Application
When a charge keeps running you — name duration, not only intensity, before strategy. See The Refractory Period.