Emotional bites. Your weekly dose of emotional intelligence.
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Ever feel like emotions kind of sneak up on you?
Like out of nowhere, like someone cuts you off in traffic and suddenly, bam, anger.
Oh, totally.
Or you see like the cutest puppy ever and you get this burst of pure joy.
The best feeling.
Right. And we always hear these feelings are like hardwired into us.
Right, right. Like they're just like waiting to be flipped on.
Exactly.
Yes.
But get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about how emotions actually work.
Oh, I'm ready. Let's do it.
Okay.
Today's deep dive, we're going to the cutting edge of emotion science and we're going to explore something called the theory of constructed emotion.
Okay.
We'll be, we're digging into a bunch of research papers, really trying to figure out like what does this theory even mean and why does it matter?
I think this is going to be a good one.
It really challenges how we traditionally think about emotions.
Right, because the traditional view, this idea that we have these emotion packages just like sitting in our brains ready to go, it kind of starts to fall apart when you really look at the research.
Yeah, it does.
One of the papers we're looking at today, they actually call it the emotion paradox and it gets to the core of the problem.
It does.
Researchers have been trying for decades to find these unique biological fingerprints for our emotions, you know, like if there are specific areas in the brain that light up when we're angry or if our bodies react in a certain way when we're sad versus afraid.
So, like if we can just find the right combination of like facial expressions and brain activity and maybe like, you know, a racing heart, then we could just definitively say, yep, that's anger.
Or that's definitely sadness.
Right.
That's what we'd expect, right?
It seems logical, but the research just doesn't really back that up.
It really doesn't.
Like, for example, there's this one study.
It's in the paper called Categorization and Emotion.
And the researchers were looking at facial muscle activity.
Interesting.
Yeah, they were trying to see if they could tell the difference between negative emotions.
So like anger, sadness, fear, just by these tiny little micro expressions that our faces make.
Oh, wow.
And could they?
So you want to know what they found?
Yeah, tell me.
They couldn't reliably tell those emotions apart just by looking at people's facial muscles.
Instead of finding unique patterns for each emotion, they mostly just saw differences in like whether the emotion was good or bad overall.
Okay.
Or how intense the person was feeling, not really the specific type of emotion.
Yeah, that's really a really important point.
And we see the same trend pop up in other studies too, you know, whether they are looking at our bodies, like you said, heart rate or sweating, things like that, or even brain imaging studies.
So then how do we explain all the different emotions that we feel?
Right.
If it's not as simple as these pre-programmed packages of feelings, then what's really going on in our brains?
Right, what is happening?
And that's where things get really interesting.
This is where the theory of constructed emotion comes in.
Yeah.
And it gives us a completely different perspective.
Okay.
It really is a different way of thinking about it.
So instead of these like pre-packaged emotions, imagine your brain is more like a master chef in the kitchen.
Ooh, okay.
I like that.
Yeah.
So instead of just like opening up a can of sadness or anger, our brains are actually like whipping up these complex emotional dishes.
Exactly, yes.
And just like any good chef, the brain relies on some key ingredients.
Right.
And several of the articles we're looking at today, like this one, Allostasis Cognition and Depression, they highlight this really important role of the brain as the body's like energy manager.
Oh, right.
Yeah, they talk about that like Allostasis thing.
Yes.
It's a mouthful.
It is.
It is a bit of a mouthful.
Basically, think of it like this, your brain is constantly trying to predict what's going to happen next.
And it's using those predictions to make sure your body has the energy it needs to to handle whatever's coming.
So it's like, like my brain is kind of a smart thermostat, but for my whole system.
Yes.
That's a great way to put it.
Okay.
It's about keeping your system balanced and ready for action.
Okay.
So give me an example, like what kind of energy are we talking about?
Sure.
You know, you're walking down a dark street.
Okay.
Yeah, I'm already nervous.
Right.
And you hear a noise, right.
So your brain, it picks up on those cues and it starts to prepare your body to react.
Like you might need to fight or run away.
And those actions, they require energy like glucose, for example.
Oh, okay.
So my brain is basically making sure I have enough fuel in the tank to deal with the situation.
Exactly.
And here's where it gets really, really interesting and where emotions come in.
Okay.
This whole energy budgeting process, it's not just about physical reactions.
Okay.
It's deeply connected to how we feel.
So it's not just my heart racing.
We're talking about my emotions too.
Yes, exactly.
Emotions are not separate from this energy budgeting.
They're a core part of it.
Wow.
Okay.
And this is where another really fascinating concept comes in.
Interoception.
Have you ever heard of that?
I feel like maybe.
Remind me.
Yeah.
The interoception article, it describes it as it's essentially like your brain's ability
to sense what's going on inside your body.
Okay.
So like, is my brain getting information about my heartbeat, my breathing, like even my stomach
feels like fluttery.
Exactly.
All these internal sensations, this interoception.
Yeah.
And your brain is constantly taking in that data along with information from the outside
world and it's using it all to create your emotional experience.
Okay.
I think I'm falling.
Let's go back to that dark street.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm walking, my heart's racing, my brain is basically an overdrive.
Yeah.
How does all of that get turned into like the feeling of fear?
Okay.
So your brain, it's taking in all those signals.
Right.
The darkness, that sound you heard, your heart beating faster.
Right.
And it's using them to create a prediction.
Okay.
And in this case, it might be predicting danger.
Right.
And that prediction, combined with those physical sensations, that's what gets categorized as
fear.
So hold on.
So you're saying the feeling of fear, it isn't just like automatically triggered by the situation.
It's actually constructed by my brain in that remit.
That's exactly.
That's the key idea here.
Your brain is always working to make sense of the world around you and your place in
it.
Wow.
And emotions, emotions are a big part of how it does that.
This is blowing my mind.
So it's like, my brain is saying, okay, dark street, weird noise, my heart's going crazy.
This seems dangerous.
We're calling this fear.
Yes.
It's generating these feelings in the moment on the fly to help you navigate whatever is
happening.
Wow.
And this whole process, this constant back and forth between prediction and sensation
and categorization, that's how the theory of constructed emotion explains how we experience
emotions.
Okay.
So this is a lot to take in.
But if our brains are basically constructing emotions in the moment, does that mean they
aren't real?
It's not like we're just imagining these feelings.
That's a great question.
And it's something a lot of people wonder about with this theory.
And actually both the connecting mind and brain paper and the emotions are real paper,
they both address this directly.
Okay.
And they emphasize that just because something is constructed doesn't mean it's not real.
It just means it's real in a different way.
Okay.
I think I get that.
It's like a dollar bill is a real thing, but it only has value because we all kind of
agree that it does.
Yeah.
Yes.
That's a perfect analogy.
Okay, good.
So our brains, our bodies, our cultures, we create them.
We give them meaning.
We give them power.
One of the articles calls them ontologically subjective.
So they're real because we collectively say they are.
Ontologically subjective.
Wow.
I am definitely going to need a dictionary after this one.
Huh?
Yeah, it's a mouthful.
It is.
But the point is, even though they're constructed, emotions have a huge impact on our lives.
Let me just think about it.
Yeah.
They change the world.
They change how we react to things.
They even impact how we connect with other people.
So even though my brain is doing all this, like behind the scenes construction, when
I'm walking down that dark street, the fear that I feel is still very real.
It is absolutely real.
And it's that feeling of fear, that constructed emotion that's actually helping to keep you
safe.
Right.
It's focusing your attention.
It's making you more aware of your surroundings, you know, just in case there's a threat.
And it's preparing your body to respond if it needs to.
Wow, that's amazing.
So what I'm taking away from all this is that emotions, they're both real and constructed
and really understanding that could actually be helpful in how we deal with them.
Exactly.
Yes.
That's the really empowering part of all of this.
The Transforming Emotion article actually talks about how having a wider range of emotion
concepts, so basically a bigger emotional vocabulary, it can actually help us regulate
our emotions better.
So instead of just labeling everything as like good or bad or happy or sad, maybe I
can learn to pinpoint like more specific nuanced emotions.
Exactly.
Yeah.
The more specific you can be about what you're feeling, the more equipped you are to actually
understand it, work through it, you know, it's like having a more detailed map of like
your own internal landscape.
I love that.
Okay.
Wow.
This has been such an eye-opening deep dive.
So to kind of like bring it all together, we learned that emotions aren't just these
hardwired responses that we have no control over.
They're actually actively built by our brains and they're based on a ton of different factors
like our predictions about what's going on around us, our physical sensations, our past
experiences, all of it.
Right.
And they're influenced by our culture, by our upbringing.
It's really complex, but it's also really fascinating.
Yeah.
So when we were constructed, we learned that they're still very real, they're incredibly
powerful and they have this huge impact on like literally every aspect of our lives,
how we see the world, how we interact with other people, all of it.
It's true.
Our emotions, they make us who we are.
They really do.
So next time you feel that wave of emotion coming on, it's joy or anger or fear or like
anything in between.
Just remember that your brain is working behind the scenes, constructing that whole experience.
It's amazing when you think about it like that.
It is.
And the more you understand about how this process works, the more power you have to
navigate it, you can manage those feelings better and hopefully live a richer, happier,
more fulfilling life.
I love that.
And that is a great place to leave it for today.
Until next time, everyone, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep diving deep into the
mysteries of the mind.
And most importantly, stay curious.