This article introduces a typology of three different ways to imagine emotion: belief-like imagining emotions (B-Im), emotional imagination (E-Im), and emotion-like imagination (X-Im). X-Im, which has been underexplored, involves reenacting the emotional state itself, resulting in the imagined content having emotional phenomenal properties. The article explores X-Im in depth, suggesting emotion regulation mechanisms as its cognitive basis and discussing its relevance to affective forecasting and empathetic understanding.

Slawa Loev, Marco Inchingolo, Pablo Fernandez Velasco