God Awful Things

Think of the emotions you feel.. happy, sad, anger, jealousy, lust..uuuuh.. is bored an emotion or a lack of emotion? pride.. hmm, not like counting our sesnes… clueless? no, that’s just how I feel trying to think of more emotions.

I can’t believe I had to google this, and even then I couldn’t find anyone who agrees on it.. and don’t try wikipedia! and so the whole setup I had for this post where I was going to make emoticons to represent them, but alas.. anywho.. this post is about

Five Emotions You Never Knew You Had [Via newscientist.com]

Numero uno

Elevation: which is essentially inspiration (to me).. Dude did some tests to try and figure out what the benefit is for us to feel this, but you can read the article for that.. I just found this interesting..

So elevation has a physiological component and motivational one too. However, unlike the Big Six emotions, it does not have an obvious characteristic facial expression, which may explain why it has slipped under the research radar for so long. If you appreciate the context, you may be able to detect a slight softening of the features, says Haidt. Sometimes the eyebrows are raised as if the person is sad.

Elevation is also relatively rare. People typically experience it less than once a week, although there are wide individual differences. Where it does score, though, is in being highly significant. “If you ask people to remember their most cherished experiences of their whole life, elevatory moments are likely to feature in their top five,” says Haidt. What’s more, if we can harness elevation to build trust, it could have particular relevance in the modern world for strengthening or repairing personal relationships. Haidt envisages a time, for example, when marital therapists might try to induce it so as to enhance the effectiveness of couples’ counselling sessions.

Note to self.. use the elevation emotion to build false bonds for conning people..

#2! Interest.. or curiosity.

Your head tilts to one side, your speech quickens and the muscles in your forehead and around your eyes contract as you become engrossed in mastering a bassoon sonata, understanding the thermodynamics of the universe, or perhaps just browsing your stamp collection. Interest may be trickier to pin down than fear or joy but it nevertheless possesses one of the hallmarks of a basic emotion – its own facial expression. Since the 1960s whenPaul Ekman pioneered the field, psychologists have looked for universal, characteristic facial expressions to help measure and classify emotions.

Interest also seems to have a purpose. Psychologist Paul Silvia at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, believes it motivates people to learn – not for money, not for an exam, but for its own sake, to increase their knowledge just because they want to.

How meta for me to find this article interesting.. whoa, I just blew my mind.

Three.. Gratitude..

Considering I never feel this, I’ll leave it to the experts.. I kid, I kid…

…”

The facial expression has yet to be identified, although it is easy to speculate what it might involve – a smile and a dip of the head, perhaps. Furthermore, studies have yet to be carried out in non-western cultures. This could be important, as expressions of gratitude may be culturally ingrained. Expectations of which situations will generate gratitude certainly are: waiters in the US will stand at your elbow until you tip, for example, whereas in Japan they will chase you down the street to return the extra cash you left on the table.

Like all emotions worth their salt, though, gratitude motivates us to act: it makes us want to acknowledge and repay a kindness or thoughtful gesture. So gratitude might simply ensure a quid pro quo repayment mechanism, but new research suggests there may be more to it than that.”

They also say it’s important in a romantic relationship.. *cough* no wonder I never feel this *cough*

Four. Pride

Hey! I got one!

Pride also differs from the Big Six in being a “self-conscious” emotion. Like shame, guilt and embarrassment, it requires a sense of self and the ability to self-evaluate. “In order to experience pride,” Tracy says, “I need to think about who I am, who I want to be and how the event that’s just happened reflects on me and my ambitions.” Nevertheless, she believes there is a strong case for thinking of pride as a basic emotion. Her research suggests that the physical expression of pride is recognised in pre-literate, isolated tribes (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 94, p 516). She has even found it in people who were born blind, indicating that it is innate rather than learned (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 105, p 11655).

So what is the point of pride, and why do we have two prides that feel different but look the same? In general, when people see pride expressed they associate it with high status. So pride motivates us to do well so that we gain respect. There are two distinct ways to do this, which perhaps explains the flip sides of pride.

And finally #5

Confusion? Yup

…Silvia thinks there is a good case to be made for considering confusion as a basic emotion, not least because it is so easy to spot. The brow furrows, the eyes narrow, the lip might even get bitten – you know confusion when you see it. In fact, one study found it was the second most recognisable everyday expression, only surpassed by joy (Emotion, vol 3, p 68).

What, then, is confusion for? It’s a knowledge-based emotion, in the same “family” as interest and surprise, says Silvia. He believes it is our brain’s way of telling us that the way we are thinking about things is not working, that our mental model of the world is flawed or inadequate. Sometimes this will make us withdraw, but it can also motivate us to shift our attention or change our learning strategy, he says.

Anywho.. head over there, give the whole thing a read, then go watch Lie to Me*