#844 - Dr Laith Al-Shawaf - Why Do Humans Actually Have Emotions?
Sep 28, 2024
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Dr. Laith Al-Shawaf, an evolutionary psychologist and associate professor at UCCS, dives into the fascinating world of human emotions. He explores why we feel emotions, their evolutionary significance, and how they shape our behavior and social interactions. From joy to envy, Al-Shawaf discusses the adaptive functions of our emotions and their dual roles in survival and social cohesion. He contrasts modern emotional challenges with traditional community support, offering insight into the complexities of feelings and their impact on mental wellbeing.
Emotions have evolved as adaptive responses serving specific survival and reproductive purposes, such as fear protecting from danger and disgust preventing contamination.
The duality of emotions reveals their essential role in survival and relationships while also recognizing their potential to cause psychological distress.
Understanding the influence of cognition on emotions allows individuals to better differentiate and manage their emotional responses for healthier outcomes.
Deep dives
The Evolutionary Purpose of Emotions
Emotions have evolved as adaptive functions serving specific purposes that contribute to survival and reproduction. For instance, fear acts as a protective mechanism against danger, while disgust helps protect against pathogens and contamination. Emotions like romantic love facilitate the formation of pair bonds essential for parenting and raising offspring, and envy aids in navigating social hierarchies. Each emotion, therefore, has a defined role that goes beyond mere feeling, contributing to our ability to make decisions that enhance our overall fitness in varied social and environmental contexts.
The Emotion Paradox
The podcast discusses the emotion paradox, wherein emotions can be simultaneously adaptive and problematic. While they serve vital functions for survival and interpersonal relationships, they can also lead to psychological distress and maladaptive behaviors. This duality requires a nuanced understanding: emotions should not be vilified outright because they are essential for navigating life's challenges. Acknowledging the complexities of emotions enables individuals to reconcile their functions and the distress they may cause.
Understanding Emotions Beyond Feelings
Emotions are not merely feelings; they encompass physiological, cognitive, and behavioral responses that work together to address adaptive challenges. For example, fear encompasses heightened attention and physiological changes that prepare the body for either fight or flight. Disgust involves a range of responses, including immune system activation, reflecting how emotions synchronize various bodily systems. Recognizing this broader scope helps to appreciate the organized nature of emotions and their systematic contribution to problem-solving.
Emotions and Social Relationships
Emotions such as guilt, shame, and anger play crucial roles in managing social relationships and status within a community. Guilt helps repair relationships when someone has caused harm, while shame is tied to protecting one's social standing and avoiding ostracism. Anger functions as a tool for negotiating better treatment within relationships. Understanding these social dynamics reveals how emotions guide interpersonal interactions and help maintain social order.
The Impact of Evolutionary Mismatch
Modern society often presents challenges that do not align with the adaptive purposes of emotions developed over evolutionary time. Many people now live in less supportive environments, with reduced kinship connections and increased social isolation, contributing to feelings of anxiety and depression. Such evolutionary mismatch can amplify negative emotions that were once adaptive under different conditions. Recognizing this mismatch can inform strategies for coping with emotional distress in a contemporary context.
The Role of Cognition in Emotional Experience
Cognition significantly influences the experience of emotions, especially how individuals perceive and respond to them. The concept of 'need for cognition' helps explain how those who seek deeper understanding of their emotional states can mitigate distress related to anxiety or guilt. By fostering a more nuanced approach to emotions based on cognitive assessment, individuals can differentiate between adaptive emotional responses and maladaptive reactions. This recognition allows for healthier self-management of emotions rather than merely reacting to them.
Dr Laith Al-Shawaf is an emotions researcher and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCCS.
Humans have a wide range of emotions. But why do we feel anything at all? Why do we have a felt sense of emotions and how did they evolve?
Expect to learn the evolutionary story of why humans feel stuff, whether some emotions are more basic than others, evolutionary explanations for joy, anger, disgust, envy, awe, happiness and much more…
