The Human Condition: Emotion, and Its Impact

Introduction

As psychologists continue to grow their understanding of the brain an increasing amount of information about emotion is being discovered. It’s been found that the previously held belief that gut feelings about peoples’ emotional states are more likely to be wrong than an analytical approach. Even with brain scans showing that emotional responses psychologists still don’t agree on emotion and the number and size of areas in the brain that correspond with certain emotions are different between people. New information shows that too much emotional intelligence is bad, causing stress in people that are too empathetic. These studies show that human emotion is still far from being fully understood but it is becoming less of a mystery as the years pass.

Many people think that reading people’s emotion is a gut instinct and that thinking about how somebody is really feeling will give a less accurate impression than the gut feeling. How We Read Emotions: Feeling Your Pain states that recent research has found that thinking about someone’s emotions over will provide a more accurate than gut feelings. This new information contradicts currently held beliefs about emotional interpretation, researchers find this curious given how universal the idea that gut feelings are more accurate than thought out interpretations. Brain scans have shown that different emotions have different effects on the brain. While tests show that it’s possible to predict what emotion is being shown in a brain scans, it is not yet proven that results from one test can be used to identify emotions from a different group of people. People who are emotionally intelligent are able to more easily tell what other people are feeling. Emotional intelligence has always been considered a positive trait, the more you have, the better. It now seems that too much emotional intelligence is bad, causing undue stress in people that are too empathetic.

Impact on Society

Emotions are important, but they are dangerous in extremes. The development of a “we” versus “them” mentality in politics stems from the exploitation of emotion and creating a polarized system. Through the use of rhetoric and propaganda a political party or movement can make people believe that another ideological group is an enemy rather than just people with different opinions a political group gains greater support by building on peoples’ hate and fear. Separating into groups with similar ways of thinking also provides a sense of belonging from uniformity. If the political climate becomes too polarized then uniformity is capable of overpowering individual autonomy and authoritarianism can take control in a party.

Emotions hold more power over the actions of a person than most seem to think. Without controlling their emotions people can start falling into the extremes, both political and personal. People that don’t control their emotions can also fall more easily into hype and believe whatever someone says if it is accompanied by something emotionally impactful. Emotions can disrupt properly looking at a scenario or issue from a pragmatic and analytical point of view. Emotion allows a lot of good to occur through things like humanitarian aid and charities. Unfortunately emotions also allow manipulation and power acquisition for those who know how to properly play around with the emotions of others.

Conclusion

The studies show human emotion is still far from being fully understood but it is becoming less of a mystery as the years pass. As psychologists continue to grow their understanding of the brain an increasing amount of information about emotion is being discovered. Previously held beliefs and gut feelings about peoples’ emotional states are much more inaccurate then the common person believes. Brain scans show emotional responses, but we can’t use them to tell emotions between different people. Emotional intelligence, having a “the more the better” type reputation, is causing stress in people that are too empathetic.