Running Head: EPISTEMIC NEGATIVE AFFECT 1 Lost in Multidimensional Space: Epistemic Motivations Define and Distinguish Negative Affect Paul J. Maher University College Dublin & University of Limerick, Ireland Wijnand A. P. van Tilburg King’s College London, United Kingdom Eric R. Igou University of Limerick, Ireland [A version of this manuscript was accepted for publication in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin] Paul J. Maher, School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland. Wijnand A. P. van Tilburg, Department of Psychology, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom. Eric R. Igou, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Republic of Ireland. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. All authors consented to the submission of this manuscript. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Paul J. Maher, School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland; Email: Paul.Maher@ucd.ie