A sample of 93 real paying members registered on online dating websites in China was employed to test the model empirically.

This context entails a high personal stake and exhibits a high level of intrinsically motivating and goal-directed behaviour that appears most suitable to elicit the anticipatory emotions for this study.

There are seven PAEs, namely, excited, delighted, happy, glad, satisfied, self-assured and proud.

There is also a battery of ten NAEs, namely, angry, frustrated, guilty, ashamed, sad, disappointed, depressed, worried, uncomfortable and fearful.

In the same vein, in an online dating searching task, the success of finding a satisfactory dating candidate is a great personal stake such as self-esteem, a self-perceived subjective welfare and possible recognition from peers and family of one’s social competences (especially in a Chinese cultural context).