CHAPTER 6

Emotion

Social Psychology, 5th edition

© 2019 by W. W. Norton & Company
Characterizing Emotion
Emotion
• A brief, specific response, both psychological and
physiological, that helps people meet goals, including
social goals.

2
Emotional Expression: Evolutionary Approaches
Evolutionary approaches
• Emotions are biologically based behavioral adaptations
meant to promote survival and reproduction.
• Physiological responses to emotions (facial expressions,
heart rate, breathing, vocalizations, and so on) should be
cross-culturally universal.

3
Emotional Expression: Cultural Approaches
Cultural approaches
• Emotions are influenced by views of self, social values,
and social roles, which vary from culture to culture.
• Emotions should be expressed in different ways in
different cultures.

4
Emotional Expression: Universal and Culturally Specific
Both evolutionary and cultural approaches have merit.
• Emotional responses may be innate and universal, but
cultures may have different emotional accents and
display rules.

5
Darwin and Emotional Expression
Principle of serviceable associated habits
• Darwin’s thesis was that human emotions derive from
motivations and displays that were evolutionarily
advantageous for our mammalian and primate ancestors.

6
Darwin’s Hypotheses
Darwin’s hypotheses:
• Emotions are universal.
o All humans have the same facial muscles.
o Since humans share an evolutionary history with other
mammals, most recently primates, our emotionally expressive
behaviors should resemble those of other species.
o Blind individuals, lacking the rich visual input a culture provides
related to how to display emotion, will still show expressions
similar to those of sighted people.

7
The Universality of Facial Expression
Facial expressions are recognized cross-culturally.
• Cultures never exposed to the West or Western media
(for example, the Fore of Papua New Guinea) can
accurately identify expressions of happiness, surprise,
sadness, anger, disgust, and fear shown by Westerners.
• U.S. college students accurately identified facial
expressions shown by the Fore.

8
Recognizing Facial Expressions of Emotion

9
The Universality of Facial Expression: Primates
Human facial expressions resemble displays of other primates.
• Human anger resembles other primates’ threat displays.
• When playing, chimpanzees have a “relaxed open-mouth
display” that resembles human laughter.
• Human embarrassment resembles the appeasement
displays of other social mammals.

10
Facial Expressions May Be Innate
Facial expressions may be innate.
• Blind and sighted athletes show similar facial
expressions of pride after winning a competition.

11
Cultural Specificity of Emotional Expression: Focal Emotions
Focal emotions
• Emotions that are especially common within a particular
culture
o Societies with a culture of honor may express more anger at
insults.

12
Cultural Specificity of Emotional Expression: Ideal Emotions
Culture and ideal emotions
• Affect valuation theory
o Emotions that promote important cultural ideals are valued and
will tend to play a more prominent role in the social lives of
individuals.

13
Cultural Specificity of Emotional Expression: Display Rules
Culture and display rules
• Display rule
o A culturally specific rule that governs how, when, and to whom
people express emotion

14
Emotions and Social Relationships
Emotions are like a nonverbal language we use to carry out
our social interactions.

15
Flirtation

16
Promoting Commitment
Emotions may promote relationship commitment in two ways.
• First, the expression of certain emotions signals our
sincere commitment to others’ well-being.
• Second, emotions can motivate us to put aside our own
self-interest and act in ways that prioritize the welfare of
others.

17
Promoting Commitment
The chemical oxytocin is produced in the hypothalamus and
released into the brain and bloodstream.
• In nonhuman species, oxytocin promotes commitment,
or what is called pair bonding, the preference for one
mate over desirable alternatives.
• In humans, oxytocin may be associated with experiences
and expressions of love, which can promote commitment
in long-term relationships.

18
Coordinating Actions with Others
With a deftly placed touch, we can encourage people or
dissuade them from inappropriate behavior.
• The right kind of touch can prompt people to act in a
collaborative fashion.

19
Communicating Emotion Through Touch

20
Knowing Our Place in Groups
Emotions and status within groups
• Displays of such emotions as anger can increase social
power within a group.
o Linked to higher perceptions of social status and more power in
negotiations

21
Emotions and Social Cognition
• Emotions can influence how we process information and
make judgments.
o Emotions can influence judgments by being taken as
additional information about the judgment.

22
Emotions Influence Perception
The idea that emotions influence perception is found in color-
based metaphors portraying emotions as lenses through
which we perceive our circumstances.
• Sadness is “blue.”
• Anger makes us see “red.”
• Happiness has us looking at the world through “rose-
colored” glasses.

23
Emotions Influence Broader Judgments
We perceive events in ways that are consistent with the
emotions we’re currently feeling.
• Emotions also can influence broader judgments, such as
our sense that our circumstances are fair or safe, or
unfair and dangerous.

24
Misattribution Theory

25
26
Emotions Influence Reasoning
Broaden-and-build hypothesis
• The idea that positive emotions broaden thoughts and
actions, helping people build social resources

27
Emotions Influence Moral Judgment
Social intuitionist model of moral judgment
• The idea that people first have fast, emotional reactions
to morally relevant events and then rely on reason to
arrive at a judgment of right or wrong

28
Emotions Influence Moral Judgment: Moral Foundations
Moral foundations theory
• A theory proposing that there are five evolved, universal
moral domains in which specific emotions guide moral
judgments
o Care/harm
o Fairness/cheating
o Loyalty/betrayal
o Authority/subversion
o Purity/degradation

29
Moral Foundations and the Culture Wars

30
Moral Foundations Theory

31
Happiness: Measurable Components
Psychologists believe happiness has two measurable
components.
• First, there is life satisfaction, or how well you think your
life is going in general.
• Then there is emotional well-being, which refers to the
tendency to experience more positive emotions than
negative emotions at any moment in time, or over a given
length of time.

32
Happiness
Happiness is associated with creativity and high performance
at work.
• It is also connected to better health, demonstrated by
reduced pain, better sleep, and stronger cardiovascular
and immune systems.

33
Knowing What Makes Us Happy
Affective forecasting
• Predicting future emotions, such as whether an event
will result in happiness or anger or sadness, and for how
long
o For instance, how happy or unhappy we’d be after a romantic
breakup
• Affective forecasting is often incorrect.
o People often assume that they will like or dislike a future event
more than they actually do when it occurs.

34
Affective Forecasting

35
Knowing What Makes Us Happy: Immune Neglect
Immune neglect
• The tendency for people to underestimate their capacity
to be resilient in responding to difficult life events, which
leads them to overestimate the extent to which life’s
problems will reduce their personal well-being
• Painful, difficult experiences often are less upsetting than
we expect them to be.
o For instance, people often expect relationship breakups to be
more traumatic and depressing than they actually are.

36
Knowing What Makes Us Happy: Focalism
Focalism
• A tendency to focus too much on a central aspect of an
event while neglecting the possible impact of associated
factors or other events
• We may neglect thinking about how we will feel after the
initial event or the importance of other events in
determining our feelings.
o For instance, a happy wedding day doesn’t guarantee a satisfying
marriage.

37
Pursuing Happiness
Demographic factors of happier individuals
• More successful social relationships
• Religious engagement
• Age and gender are relatively unimportant.
• Money only increases happiness among those with
annual incomes less than $75,000.
• People are happier in countries where individual rights
and economic opportunities are available.

38
Recalling Our Happy Moments
Duration neglect
• Giving relatively less importance to the length of an
emotional experience, whether pleasurable or
unpleasant, in judging and remembering the overall
experience

39