Our theory of challenge and threat is a biopsychosocial model of  these superordinate motivational states. The antecedents of challenge and  threat include more or less continuous conscious and unconscious  evaluations or appraisals of situational demands and available resources  involving both affective and cognitive cues. Differentiated consequences of  challenge and threat include facial EMG, cardiovascular patterns, task  performance, and self-reports. The theory and cardiovascular markers have  been applied to numerous substantive issues in social psychology such as  attitude functionality, social comparison, social facilitation, performance  feedback, religiosity, stigma, and self-esteem.