Life and George: Why we can't fully understand strong emotional states like fear or anger when we're not experiencing that state ourselves. They put students in a big group and told them they might soon be chosen to step up to the front of the class for a dance-off. Students in this hot state demanded over 50 bucks to get on stage, some wanted way more. Life and George: We all show an empathy gap for ourselves.
When mild-mannered David Banner gets mad he transforms into the raging Incredible Hulk. Dr Laurie Santos loves this comic book tale - because it reflects real life. Intense things like anger, pain, even hunger, can cause us to act in extreme ways that we might not predict beforehand or forgive afterwards.
When we're in so-called "hot states" we might become a total stranger to ourselves. This can have a serious impact on our happiness, by stopping us properly planning for how we'll react to strong emotions and causing us to be unfairly harsh on our inner Hulks.
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