Tuesday, July 26, 2016

5 Fascinating Facts About the Science of Emotions

They're something we all experience on a daily basis. Happiness, sadness, anger, joy, love, but they're generally passive in the sense that we don't actively think about why our body's are making that emotion happen in the moment, or how. Well in this Facts In Five, I'm going to explain everything that you need to know about your emotions in five minutes or less.
Emotion face (source)

Today we're examining how we feel about well about how well feel. They're more often than not out of our control, simply reactions to whatever situation that we are in. But reactions are not how much do we know about the smiles on our faces or the tears on our cheeks. Well it's time to find out. This is Facts In Five, All About Emotions.

1. So what are emotions?

Emotions are essentially states of feeling after being effected by a stimulus. There's been a lot of debates among scientists over the official definition, but it's usually associated with mood, personality, motivation and disposition. All emotions have three components. Physiological changes such as an increase in body temperature and heart rate. Behavioral response such as fighting or fleeing the stimuli in order to deal with it. And third, a subject experience, which is how you yourself specifically feel about the stimuli, such as being happy or scared. Emotions motivate a person to act and simply put are to the mind what physical sensations are to the body.

2. Who discovered emotions?

Obviously, humans have known about emotions since the dawn of our race, but it was Charles Darwin who theorized that emotions are beneficial for evolution due to how they improve humanity's chances for survival. Fast forward to 1980, when Dr. Robert Plutchik, professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine proposed that there were eight primary emotions. Joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and anticipation. He went on to theorize that certain emotions are related to more complex emotions, such as love. Remorse and boredom were simply combinations of the primary ones.

3. Where do emotions come from?

Centuries ago, doctors and healers understood emotions as feelings that came from other organs. Anger came from the kidneys. Fear came from the kidneys and contentment came from the heart. Aww. But nowadays people attribute these emotions to other parts of the body. Such as anger coming from the spleen and fear coming from the spine. That's why people say things like you a spineless jellyfish. But we now understand now that emotions are of course formed in the brain as responses to a number of different causes, such as external stimuluses, previous experiences with the emotional state and even genetics. Studies have shown that negative emotions such as depression reveal higher activation in the frontal right cortex, and deeper brain structures, while positive emotions show more activity in the left frontal cortex.

4. When can emotions be controlled?

For decades advertisers have been trying to connect their products and services to emotional states. Alternatively, triggering emotions can also help thwart buying behavior, such as when the government puts warnings on cigarette packages to show the horrors that smoking can lead to. Sometimes the emotional connection is much more subtle. With no direct message or wording the advertiser can manipulate emotions through music, background noise, or even colors. While not everyone connects the same emotion to a color, most see reds and oranges and feel stimulated or excited. While blues and purples make them feel more calm or restful. Studies done on children show that they were more friendlier, alert, and more creative, when in an orange room than white, brown or black rooms.

5. So why are emotions so fascinating?

Scientists are learning more and more about emotions and why we feel them all of the time. The fascination comes from not only what we don't know, but the incredible amount that we do know and just how bizarre it is. For instance, some emotions are inane rather learned. This is why a person blind from birth still can show happiness, sadness or any of the other basic emotions the same way that a person that has sight does. Plus, studies have proven that purposefully changing your facial expression to display a certain emotion will gradually make you feel that emotion. As a little test, whatever you're feeling right now, smile and keep it that way for say a minute. See what happens.
Emotion Icons (pixabay)

Thanks for reading guys. If you want to learn anything more about what I talked about in this article, be sure to check out our sources below. And if you enjoyed it, slap a comment on it. And don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter so that you can catch my next article. I will see you guys later, have a great day.

Sources:


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion
  • https://medium.com/@kpljaskovova/20-fascinating-facts-about-emotions-ad4e9af85755#.8ht0nepxh
  • http://changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/emotions.htm
  • http://www.storypick.com/facts-about-emotions/


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