Categorical Emotions or Appraisals -- Which Emotion Model Explains Argument Convincingness Better?

The study titled 'Categorical Emotions or Appraisals -- Which Emotion Model Explains Argument Convincingness Better?' published on arXiv investigates the role of emotions and appraisals in the convincingness of arguments. It posits that the emotional response elicited by an argument is subjective, influenced by individual goals, prior knowledge, and personal stances. By utilizing annotations from the ContArgA corpus, the researchers conducted zero-shot prompting experiments to assess the relevance of both categorical emotions and appraisals. Their findings indicate that while categorical emotions enhance the prediction of convincingness, appraisals yield a more pronounced improvement. This research is significant as it bridges the gap between cognitive assessments and emotional responses, offering insights into how arguments can be made more persuasive.