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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 757–761Cite as

Cold Cognition

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Synonyms

Descriptions; Inferences; Knowledge; Neutral information processing

Definition

Cold cognition is a concept used to describe information processing – be it conscious and/or unconscious (i.e., implicit/automatic) – which does not have a direct impact on emotional responses.

Introduction

The distinction between hot and cold cognitions steams from the cognitive theories of emotions (e.g., Abelson and Rosenberg 1958; Lazarus 1982; Lazarus and Folkman 1984). Such theories assume that emotional responses are generated by the cognitive processing – be it conscious and/or unconscious (i.e., implicit/tacit) – of the information coming from the environment. In the simplest perspective, the distinction between hot (i.e., appraisal/evaluative) and cold cognitive processing is reflected in the impact which such cognitions have on the emotional responses of the individual. Hot cognitions are responsible for processing the emotionally relevant features of the representations of the stimuli...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Daniel David

  2. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Daniel David

  3. Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Silviu Matu

Authors
  1. Daniel David
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  2. Silviu Matu
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Correspondence to Daniel David .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

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David, D., Matu, S. (2020). Cold Cognition. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_967

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