Fun Facts about Emotions: What does it mean to feel?

Can you imagine how your life would be if you cannot feel anything anymore? There will be no more joy and sorrow, love and fear, amazement and annoyance – we will be no different from an android. Yes, emotions have painted and decorated our lives, and surely it is also a powerful and complex media to help us make sense of experiences.Therefore, psychologists and scientists have long been carrying out experiments to find out how emotions play an important role in influencing our behaviours, especially in terms of physiological and cognitive elements. However, emotions are not all about biological theories and science, they can be fascinating and interesting as well. So, let’s get acquainted with these fun facts about emotions, shall we?

#1 Emotions are neutral.

Generally, almost all emotions are not inherently good or bad or designed to be served as a good emotion or bad emotion^3;5. You may disagree of course, because who wants to feel sad or angry when you can be happy and content all day? Well, no……and yes!Indeed, almost everyone wants to feel good. But to be honest, emotions are neutral⁵. From this point of view, every emotion is a signal in the first place, with the only purpose being to deliver a message for survival needs^3;5. What makes emotion precious, is how you interpret and make sense of the message.What makes some emotions “pleasant” and the other “unpleasant” is that each emotion serves a different function, with different focuses and different motivations³. Thus, those emotions that we perceive as “negative” are just because they are oftentimes tied to problems or threats³.

#2 Emotions can be physical!

Although more experiments and evidence are needed to validate the idea, psychologists and scientists have proposed that emotions can be felt not only in the brain but also in the rest of the body, unlike what we have seen in the movie Inside Out¹. According to a team of scientists in Finland (Nummenmaa et al., 2014), when people were asked to map out which part of their body felt differently as they experienced different emotions, it was found out that the results were surprisingly consistent, even across cultures².In their body maps, hot colours represent the regions that are said to be stimulated for that particular emotion, whereas cool colours show deactivated areas². For example, the upper half of the body seems to be heavily stimulated during emotions such as happiness, love and pride, while the lower half of the body is oftentimes numb, especially during sadness and depression^1;2.

#3 Emotions are contagious – we “catch” emotions.

Have you ever noticed that you can’t help but laugh along with your friends? Or have you ever been crying along with the characters in a tragic film? Yes, emotions are like viruses, we can be “infected” with a smile when someone is smiling, or dwelling in a pool of tears when someone cries^1;5!Why is it so? Well, the truth is simple enough – humans are social animals⁵. We survive in groups, and hence, whether being consciously or unconsciously aware, we tend to pick up or even mimic the emotional expressions of one another^1;5. This is extremely critical and helpful in times of crisis. For example, when you see fear on someone’s face, you will probably quickly shift into the fight-or-flight mode and get your body ready for whatever that is coming. After all, the ability to perceive emotional contagion can decide you either to be sensitive to the environment, or being eaten by a lion⁵. 

#4 Emotions, feelings, and moods are different.

When you say “I am happy to meet you!”, are you expressing your emotion, your feeling, or your mood? Well, emotions, feelings, and moods are often used interchangeably in our daily lives⁴. And yes, they are talking about the same thing, but…they are not really the “same” thing. Emotions, feelings and moods are interrelated, but they are also different in terms of time and the cognitive thoughts involved^4;5.❶ Emotions are quick, automatic responses to a specific trigger, involving changes in both the brain and the body. Six Seconds, an emotional intelligence (EQ) organisation, describes them as chemical signals released throughout the body in response to how we interpret a trigger⁴.❷ Feelings are something we sense, and they are more cognitively saturated as they take place when we begin to integrate the emotions⁴. Feelings last longer than emotions, and they are sometimes the mixture of several emotions⁴.❸ Lastly, moods last longer among the three states, which can be minutes, hours, or even up to days⁴. Moods are more generic, and it is affected by the environment, the physiological state and the mental state⁴.

#5 Do emotions really last only 6 seconds?

You may have come across the claim that each emotion lasts only about 6 seconds. This idea comes from Six Seconds, an emotional intelligence (EQ) organisation, which suggests that a burst of emotion chemicals takes about six seconds to be produced and then absorbed, and that anything longer means we are “refuelling” the feeling by how we interpret it⁵. It is a simplified, popular idea rather than an established scientific finding, and how long an emotion lasts is likely to vary with the person and the situation. Still, the underlying message is a useful one: what we tell ourselves about a feeling can keep it going.Sometimes, holding on to a feeling can be useful: fear can keep us alert to danger, and pride can boost our confidence for the day ahead. But sometimes, it is not the case, as risks lie behind prolonged feelings here and there. For example, one may be dwelling in grief and never move on to a new journey of life, or become too cocky for one-time success and never to humble down again.Thus, recognizing our emotions is important, as well as to manage our emotions well. Some say emotions are the slaves to thoughts, but we should learn to not let ourselves become the slaves of our emotions! If your emotions often feel overwhelming or hard to manage, talking to a counsellor can help, or you can start with our free anxiety and stress self-check.

References

1. Cohen, Y. (2014). 7 astonishing facts about the science of emotions. Goodnet. Retrieved from https://www.goodnet.org/articles/7-astonishing-facts-about-science-emotions-list
2. Doucleff, M. (2013). Mapping emotions on the body: Love makes us warm all over. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/12/30/258313116/mapping-emotions-on-the-body-love-makes-us-warm-all-over/
3. Freedman, J. (2011). Integrated emotions: Rethinking the way we evaluate our feelings. Six Seconds. Retrieved from https://www.6seconds.org/2011/07/26/integrated-emotions/
4. Freedman, J. (2017). Emotions, feelings and moods: Does anybody know the difference? Six Seconds. Retrieved from https://www.6seconds.org/2017/05/15/emotion-feeling-mood/
5. Miller, M. (2018). 7 amazing facts about emotions you should know. Six Seconds. Retrieved from https://www.6seconds.org/2018/02/19/7-amazing-facts-emotions-know/

Additional source: Nummenmaa, L., Glerean, E., Hari, R., & Hietanen, J. K. (2014). Bodily maps of emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(2), 646–651. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1321664111

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This article is for general education only and is not a substitute for professional assessment, diagnosis or treatment.