Abstract

The objective of this article is to conduct an in‐depth examination of two interrelated emotional concepts: displaced or irrational emotions and factitious (artificial) emotions, using moral guilt as a case study. The analysis incorporates three facets of emotions: their relationship with objects, their role as motivators for actions and the extent to which individuals can control and shape their emotions. Two overarching conclusions emerged: First, the concept of artificial emotions expands to encompass a multitude of emotional states, leading to an inflated category. Second, this prompts a proposal for recognising nuanced differentiations between irrational and factitious emotions, emphasising the significance of context‐sensitive distinctions, as broader categorisations frequently prove inadequate in achieving their intended precision. These conclusions advocate a more precise approach to comprehending the nature of deviant emotions, such as irrational and artificial variants, and their relationship with objects.