情绪价值qíng xù jià zhí

Emotional value

xiè xie nǐ de qíng xù jià zhí!谢谢你的情绪价值！Thanks for making me feel better!

情绪价值 means “emotional value”: how much comfort, fun and calm someone or something gives you. People use it about friends, partners, pets and the things they buy.

Took off: 2023
Started in: Marketing language
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

情绪 is “mood” or “emotions”, and 价值 is “value”. A friend who listens, cheers you up and takes your side 给你情绪价值, “gives you emotional value”. Someone who is always cold or negative gives none.

People talk about it like a score. 情绪价值拉满 means “emotional value maxed out”, about a person or a thing that makes you feel great.

How people use it

It is now everyday Chinese, in talk about dating, friends, work and shopping. A cute mug, a pet or a concert ticket can all 提供情绪价值, “provide emotional value”.

It also works as a complaint: 他一点情绪价值都不给, “he gives zero emotional support”.

亮亮

今天面试好紧张，感觉没发挥好
jīn tiān miàn shì hǎo jǐn zhāng, gǎn jué méi fā huī hǎo
The interview today was so stressful. I don’t think I did well.
你已经很棒了！他们不要你是他们的损失
nǐ yǐ jīng hěn bàng le! tā men bú yào nǐ shì tā men de sǔn shī
You did great! If they don’t take you, it’s their loss.
晚上请你吃火锅
wǎn shang qǐng nǐ chī huǒ guō
Hot pot tonight, my treat.
哈哈，你的情绪价值给得太足了
hā hā, nǐ de qíng xù jià zhí gěi de tài zú le
Ha, you’re so good at making me feel better.

More examples

我的猫每天等我回家，情绪价值拉满。
wǒ de māo měi tiān děng wǒ huí jiā, qíng xù jià zhí lā mǎn.
My cat waits for me to come home every day. Emotional value: maxed out.
这个杯子没什么用，但是很有情绪价值。
zhè gè bēi zi méi shén me yòng, dàn shì hěn yǒu qíng xù jià zhí.
This mug is useless, but it makes me happy.

For the word itself and how to reply to it, see 情绪价值 in the slang dictionary.

Where it came from

It started as a term in marketing: the difference between the emotional gains and the emotional costs that a customer feels, according to 咬文嚼字. The popular sense moved to people: a person’s power to change how others feel.

In December 2023 咬文嚼字 put 情绪价值 on its list of the ten popular phrases of the year. A year later, the Shanghai Youth Research Center and The Paper’s research institute put it on their list of young people’s top words of 2024. They gave it a shopping sense too: 情绪消费, paying for things that make you feel better.