"Emotional stakes" refers to the level of personal and emotional investment or importance attached to a situation or outcome. It indicates how much someone has to gain or lose emotionally based on the result of something. Full definition
Given the enormous financial and emotional stakes of a home purchase, it's critical that you have total confidence in your real estate agent. (usaa.com)
Big - budget genre pieces appear to be raising emotional stakes across the board, even in the sort of films where you might not expect such resonance to be. (themarysue.com)
There's some inherent drama to buying a house: big sums of money, high emotional stakes, tense negotiations, simply tragic interior decor. (canadianbusiness.com)