For a number of years I have been involved in a scientific discussion with a group of American researchers led by Lisa Feldmann Barrettone of the most prominent researchers in the field of emotion. She has more than two hundred scientific articles to her name and she is also quite known among non-scientists because of her audience performances and books.
Because I do not agree 100 percent with the theory she embraces, she tries to push me into the other camp, by painting me in unheceled written reactions to my writing as an opponent or as someone who does not understand her theory.
Polarization, a concept that often pops up in social issues (think: Gaza-Israel, Wappies-Woke, left-right) is also a common phenomenon in science, unfortunately. Together with PhD student Karlijn van Heijst and fellow researcher Annemie Ploeger I try to try two popular theories about the origin of emotions, ‘basic emotion theory’ and ‘theory of constructed emotion’ integrate.
The first theory strongly emphasizes ‘Nature’. From that view, emotions are universal, biologically recorded symptoms with specific neurophysiological signals and behaviors. The second, developed by Barrett, states that emotions by the brain in the here and now are constructed by the integration of sensory input and earlier experiences (‘Nurture’). This means that, for example, the emotion ‘anger’ does not exist outside the interpretation of our brains. Context, culture and language ensure enormous variability in how emotions are expressed and experienced.
Changes in your body
No matter how hard the researchers from both camps are calling, they don’t seem to understand each other. Logical, because they are talking about something else. One theory is mainly about emotion, the other about feeling – and that is not the same. An emotion is a relatively short, automatic response to an event, often with clear changes in your body. Suppose a tarantula suddenly jumps on your face: your heartbeat shoots up and your eyes are wide open. A feeling, on the other hand, is the subjective experience of varied duration, such as when you think back to a good moment of the day before you go to sleep and you realize that you are experiencing joy. While emotions are often unconscious processes, feelings are aware. A feeling can come from an emotion, like a kind of interpretation of it: I am afraid because I feel my heart beating faster. Jee, how I spin, I feel the fear in my toes.
According to Barrett, emotions and feelings are connected to each other. I think that in the case of people and other animals with an increased consciousness that is usually the case. But you don’t have to. I am not always aware of my emotions and the science confirms that I am not alone in that. People sometimes need a therapist to open the door!
Barrett is not used to looking at other animals than humans. But it is precisely because emotional reactions have evolutionary usefulness (for survival, for example, it is quite useful to danger quickly and automatically), you can see them in many different animal species. Darwin described in his monograph from 1872, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and AnimalsFirst the many similarities in expressions of emotion in different animal species. He stated that even with insects certain behaviors reflect the expression of emotions that are homologous to those of man (such as anger and fear).
We now know that it has been too much for man to use these types of labels with all kinds of animal species. Every animal species is unique and has its own palette of behaviors, behaviors that we miss when we view them purely through our people’s glasses. But even fruit flies have something you could describe as ‘Emotion Primitives’the fundamental basic processes that underlie emotion.
Primitive elements
They include simple, universal mechanisms such as arousal (the degree of activation), valence (positive or negative assessment), and basic behavioral tendencies (such as going to something or avoiding something). These primitive elements form the basis on which complex emotions and feelings build, often through interactions with cognitive processes and environmental factors.
Beyond Right and Wrong: Fosting Connection in Emotion Theory Debatesthat’s the title of my answer to Barrett’s response to our article. You don’t have to convince Barrett, but a good conversation can help us further. History teaches us that the truth is usually in the middle. Even the once strongly polarized nature nurturation debate has received nuance through knowledge about epigenetics (certain genes only come to expression under specific environmental conditions).
Even though the two emotion theories seem incompatible at first sight, I think they can complement each other and that we have to look together for ways to fill the gaps in our knowledge with good research. “The Ability to Compromise and Find Common Ground is not a weakness; it’s a strength(Barack Obama).