Do You Think That Emotions Are Inherent?

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People intuitively believe that emotions are in the face, right? Or in the body. And if you think that what innate is in the body, then therefore you would be prone to saying that emotions are innate. So we've done the studies and that's exactly what we found: people believe that facial emotions are innate - but they're not universal. In fact, if you tell them, scientists believe that emotions were really learned, people still insist that emotions are informal. Evolutionary psychologists claim to my mind sensibly that there you have no reason to make these assumptions. Why you should broadcast all your emotions and in fact you have good reasons to try to hide them. You

The Blind Storyteller is an intellectual journey that draws on philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, and Berent’s own cutting-edge research. It grapples with a host of provocative questions, from why we are so afraid of zombies, to whether dyslexia is “just in our heads,” from what happens to us when we die, to why we are so infatuated with our brains. The end result is a startling new perspective on the age-old nature/nurture debate — and on what it means to be human.

Shermer and Berent discuss: nature/nurture genes/environment biology/culture • language and innate knowledge • what babies are born knowing • how people reason about human nature • dualism • essentialism • theory of mind • the nature of the self • innate beliefs in the soul and afterlife • free will and determinism • how people think about mental illness and disorders • how one’s theory of human nature effects one’s attitudes about nearly everything.

Iris Berent is a Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, Boston, and the Director of the Language and Mind Lab. Berent’s research has examined how the mind works and how we think it does. She is the author of dozens of groundbreaking scientific publications and the recipient of numerous research grants. Her previous book, The Phonological Mind (Cambridge, 2013), was hailed by Steven Pinker as a “brilliant and fascinating analysis of how we produce and interpret sound.”