Do you remember the Disney’s PIXAR movie, “Inside Out,” which shed some light on the various Human Emotions that ruled the mind of 11-year-old Midwestern girl Riley? In the movie, five human emotions were highlighted — joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. But in a new study discovered that there are more than just six human emotions that previous research originally identified.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uc berkeley researchers found that there are 27 human emotions. These emotions are in addition to the originally perceived six emotions — happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, and fear.
Emoji fans take heart: @UCBerkeley scientists pinpoint 27 states of emotion https://t.co/VHUTijdBBL @GreaterGoodSC #psychology pic.twitter.com/IPwsPUtXto
— UC Berkeley News (@UCBerkeleyNews) September 7, 2017
The findings
According to lead study author Alan Cowen, his team wanted to elucidate the “full palette of emotions that color our inner world.” Along with science of emotions expert and UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner, Cowen invited 800 participants to participate in the research by ranking the emotions they felt after watching 30 short videos.
The “emotionally evocative” silent videos were reportedly taken from different online sources. Cowen said the activity led to the discovery of 27 emotions that range from nostalgia to disgust, Daily Mail noted.
The emotions
Based on the study, the researchers found other emotions such as admiration, envy, adoration, excitement, aesthetic appreciation, horror, amusement, interest, anxiety, nostalgia, awe, awkwardness, romance, boredom, calmness, satisfaction, confusion, sexual desire, craving, empathetic pain, triumph, entrancement and sympathy.
These are in addition to anger, disgust, fear, surprise, sadness and joy or happiness.
These distinct emotional dimensions were reportedly significant in determining the response each individual felt after watching the videos, Keltner said. The researchers also found that each emotional state is interconnected to one another.
Keltner explained that they found “smooth gradients of emotion” between the feelings of amusement and adoration, horror and sadness, and peacefulness and awe. He added that there are no “finite clusters of emotions” because all are connected to each other.
Surprising findings
Cowen admitted that the results took him by surprise. He was astonished to see the distinction between the emotions, noting the fact that people did not just show “happy” and “sad” emotions when expressing what they really felt.
Cowen added that determining the difference between emotional and non-emotional (emotions and states of mind) is “worth studying.” He said the distinction among them is “fuzzy” since “some states are more emotional than others.” Their findings also suggested that there are “gradients” between the 27 human emotions.
Women are better at reading another person’s emotion
Meanwhile, a recent London-based research study found that women are more perceptive at reading another people's emotional states compared to men. According to New Zealand Herald, women are better at reading another person’s feelings by simply looking at their eyebrows and eyes.
The researchers discovered that women are good at determining the signs that hint at the vulnerability of an individual. Men, on the other hand, were found to be better at recognizing feelings associated with anger and lust.
