Emotions: Reactions or Constructions?

This is how Lisa Barrett’s book, How Emotions are Made, explains the “theory of constructed emotion”:

“Emotions are not reactions to the world. You are not a passive receiver of sensory input but an active constructor of your emotions.”

If correct, the theory leads to a nuanced idea of whether emotions are “real”:

“Emotions are real, but not in the objective sense that molecules or neurons are real. They are real in the same sense that money is real – that is, hardly an illusion, but a product of human agreement.”

But that doesn’t sound right. When we detect anger or fear or happiness in others, it feels natural, not a “product of human agreement”.

 

Her counterargument is that we internalize such agreed interpretations from the time we are born, without realizing it. Which makes emotions culture specific. Further, even within the same culture, “emotional granularity” varies:

“A skilled interior designer can look at five shades of blue and distinguish azure, cobalt, ultramarine, royal blue and cyan. My husband, on the other hand, would call them all blue… (there’s) a similar phenomenon for emotions.”

 

Have you heard of interoception?

“Interoception is your brain’s representation of all sensations from your internal organs and tissues, the hormones in your blood, and your immune system.”

Add to that the time-to-process problem:

“If your brain was merely reactive, it would be inefficient to keep you alive.”

Since it can’t react fast enough, the brain makes predictions. In turn:

“Every simulation, whether it becomes an emotion or not, impacts your body budget. As it turns out, people spend at least half their waking hours simulating rather than paying attention to the world around them, and this pure simulation strongly drives their feelings.”

Simulations provide an interesting take on what we call the “nature” of people:

“For some, the flow (of simulations) is like the trickle of a tranquil brook. For others, it is like a raging river... Even when they are only in the background, they influence what you do, what you think, and what you perceive.”

Because:

“When you experience affect (the effect that your simulations + internal body signals + external signals are producing) without knowing the cause, you are likely to treat affect as information about the world, rather than your experience of the world.”

 

Given all of the above, is it all surprising that she also writes this line?

“Ask any therapist or Buddhist monk; they’ve trained for years to become aware of their experiences and control them.”