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The Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Emotions was founded in 1998 through the initiative of Prof. Aharon Ben-Ze'ev and Prof. Moshe Zeidner, leading researchers in the field of emotion, and as a result of their recognition of the rapidly increasing research taking place in the field of emotion. Indeed, in the past three decades, following the recognition of the pivotal role of emotions in human life, emotion has taken center stage in research in different knowledge areas. Today, research has demonstrated, among others, the relation between emotions and health and disease, the central role that emotion fills in establishing and maintaining social relationships, and the importance of emotions in the world of organizations and business. Moreover, research has also shown the value of emotional abilities as expressed in, for instance, emotional intelligence and its implications for individual functioning in general and the ability to make decisions and lead others in particular.

The Center's founding fathers identified the unique potential in bringing together a group of researchers at the University of Haifa from many different areas of knowledge interested in studying emotions. They established the Center so that it could both draw together researchers and give them and their colleagues from elsewhere in Israel and around the world a home. From the day it was established the Center has served as a hub for visiting researchers, leaders in the field of emotions, and provided a nurturing environment for wide-ranging research and activity in the field. In 2010 the directorship of the Center was passed to Dr. Shlomo Hareli, of the University of Haifa's Graduate School of Management. He has made his goals the preservation of the Center's spirit, on the one hand, and the broadening of its activities both in the field of research and in practice, on the other hand.