Abstract: The “paradox of fiction” relates to three conflicting but plausible ideas: first, readers or viewers often experience emotions, such as fear, sympathy, longing, and admiration about a certain event or character they know to be fictional; second, the necessary condition for experiencing these emotions entails a belief by these people that the object of their emotions actually exists; third, fictional readers or audiences do not believe that these objects exist. The “paradox of fiction” involves three questions, to which Western scholars have adopted different approaches. (1) The question about concept: when we appreciate fiction, do we believe that fictional things exist, or are we sure our physiological and psychological symptoms are really emotional? (2) The question about cause: how do these symptoms appear when we appreciate fiction? (3) The question about nature: when people appreciate fiction, is our reaction an irrational behavior? Fictional emotional response is related to the reflection of traditional emotional cognitive theory, the definition of our response to fictional things, the similarities and differences between real and fictional emotions. Judging from the different ideas in the contemporary Western academic circle, the author believes that in order to explore this paradox, we ought to reconsider the traditional theory of emotions first, and then redefine and seek a consensus on our emotion, belief, cognition, and irrationality.

Key words: "paradox of fiction", quasi emotion, shock, rationality