The Spectrum of Emotions: Understanding the Complexity of Human Feelings

Throughout our lives, emotions influence the choices we make. We watch TV shows that make us laugh or cry, avoid people who frighten us, and eat until we feel satisfied. Although emotions play a crucial role in shaping our behaviour, psychologists still need to grasp the number of different emotions we experience fully. One theory suggests that there are five or six distinct emotions, such as anger and amusement, each completely separate from the others. Another theory proposes that we experience two opposing emotions, like pleasure or displeasure and excitement or calmness, which blend together to form all our emotional experiences. To explore the range of emotional experiences people, have in response to various situations, researchers collected over 300,000 emotional reactions to 2,185 emotionally charged films. Using mathematical techniques, they sought to determine how many distinct emotions people experience and how these emotions can blend to form complex emotional states.

EXPERIENCING EMOTIONS

Emotions colour our internal and external worlds, guiding us on what to focus on, remember, think about, and do next. Scientists may disagree entirely on the definition of “emotion,” but they generally acknowledge that it encompasses more than just feelings. Emotions may also include bodily reactions, such as a racing heart when feeling excited, expressive movements like facial expressions and sounds, such as saying “wow” when fascinated, and behaviours like shouting when angry. These bodily, expressive, and behavioural responses are often included in scientists’ definitions of emotions.

The concept of emotions might seem simple, but researchers often struggle to pin down its exact meaning. While most scientists view emotions as more than just feelings, feelings are typically considered the most critical aspect. Researchers often study emotions by measuring how people report their emotional experiences, such as using emotional labels like “anger” or “sadness.” Despite the limitations, people’s self-reports provide the most direct way to measure emotional experiences.

STRUCTURE OF EMOTIONS

Different scientists hold various theories on the structure of emotions. For years, many psychologists believed emotions could be reduced to five or six types. The well-studied emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness are often considered the primary emotions, with related emotions such as frustration and rage falling into the same emotional family. However, recent evidence suggests that people experience many other emotions in their daily lives.

One alternative perspective suggests there are only two dimensions that underlie all emotions: valence (how positive or negative someone feels) and arousal (how calm or excited someone feels). According to this view, the differences between emotions like fear and sadness, which are both negative and highly arousing, arise from our interpretations of actual events rather than distinct emotional experiences.

The researchers aimed to explore how many emotions people truly experience. They collected emotional responses to emotionally charged films and discovered that people honestly reported feeling at least 25 different emotions. They used mathematical techniques to analyse the data and determine the number of dimensions required to explain the various emotional responses.

RESULTS: UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF EMOTIONS

The researchers found that people genuinely experienced at least 25 distinct emotions based on the collected responses to emotionally charged films. These 25 emotions include awe, adoration, beauty appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, admiration, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, desire, disgust, empathic pain, surprise, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, sadness, satisfaction, and surprise.

Furthermore, they discovered that many films elicited multiple emotions from viewers. This challenges the idea that emotions are entirely separate, as depicted in the movie Inside Out. Instead, emotions are more like colours on a spectrum. Just as there are various colours between red and green, such as yellow, orange, brown, laser lemon, and electric lime, there seem to be many emotions between fear and disgust.

To visualise the 25 different emotions and their connections, the researchers created an interactive emotion map using a new mathematical technique. Each film is represented by a letter corresponding to the emotion it elicited the most, with colours indicating the precise blend of emotions it evoked. Hovering over each letter allows viewers to watch the corresponding film. However, some movies evoking disgust may be offensive, while fear and horror films may be frightening.

This research provides a deeper understanding of the complexity of human emotions, offering insights for studies on emotional disorders, how the brain represents emotions, and the design of technology that can appropriately respond to our emotional expressions.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR SCIENCE AND SOCIETY:

We have discovered that the structure of emotions is more complex than many scientists believe. Scientists who thought that emotional experiences exist as only five or six basic categories, like the characters in Inside Out, were partly correct. They were right in thinking that emotions can be best represented as categories, such as anger and fear. However, they should have considered the number of distinct categories. Moreover, they needed to be more accurate in assuming that these categories are entirely independent, just like the characters in the movie. Instead, emotions can be blended together.

On the other hand, scientists who perceived emotional experiences as dimensions, such as valence and arousal, were also correct. They were right in doubting that there are rigid boundaries between emotions. Instead, we see that emotions can be mixed together. However, they mistakenly believed that only two dimensions, valence and arousal, can explain people’s emotions. In reality, emotions are composed of at least 25 different dimensions.

In addition to inspiring animated films like Inside Out, these research findings are important for several reasons. They can impact the way scientists study various things, such as mood disorders (like anxiety or depression), how emotions are generated in the brain, and the design of machines that appropriately respond to our emotional needs.

Scientists studying mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, can utilise this research to understand the range of different emotions that patients experience in their daily lives. It may turn out that two patients with the same diagnosis, like depression, experience different emotional patterns and respond to different treatments.

Scientists investigating how the brain generates emotions can use this research to understand how emotions may be represented in different brain areas. For example, one brain area involved in emotions, especially fear-related states, is the amygdala—a small structure located deep on both sides of the brain, between the ears. The amygdala helps us learn to fear dangerous things and quickly react to them based on past experiences. Brain scientists could examine whether different amygdala parts are involved in fear-related emotional reactions, such as anxiety, terror, relief, and surprise. Such studies can help us understand the role of brain regions like the amygdala in emotions.

Lastly, scientists and engineers developing machines that interact with humans, such as social media applications, iPhones, cars, and customer service robots, can use this research to ensure that their machines respond appropriately to our emotions. These machines can provide tools to help us cope with negative emotions, such as anxiety and fear, and promote positive emotions, such as admiration and awe.

GLOSSARY:

Emotions: Scientists do not always agree about what constitutes an “emotion,” but they generally agree that it is more than just a feeling. Emotions can also involve bodily responses, such as a racing heart because of excitement, and expressive movements, including facial expressions and sounds—for example, saying “wow” when fascinated. Emotions can also encompass behaviours, like yelling at someone when angry. These bodily responses, expressive movements, and behaviours are often included in scientists’ definitions of emotions.

Feeling: The way someone experiences emotions. The feeling is something experienced internally, within one’s mind, and that others can understand based on one’s behaviour. You can help others understand how you feel by using emotional terms, such as “anger” or “sadness”—the subject of this study—or by using analogies, like “I feel like a child whose dad took away her Halloween candy.”

Correlation: The degree to which two things tend to rise and fall together. For example, height is correlated with weight because taller people are usually heavier.

Original Source Article:

Cowen A (2018) How Many Different Kinds of Emotion Are There? Front. Young Minds. 6:15.

Doi: 10.3389/frym.2018.00015

Copyright © 2018 Cowen

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT:

The author declares that the research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Quoting:

Cowen A (2018) How Many Different Kinds of Emotion are There? Front. Young Minds. 6:15.

Doi: 10.3389/frym.2018.00015

Copyright © 2018 Cowen

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