49+ Human Emotion Facts That You Probably Haven't Heard Before

Emotions do not just mean feelings, but it is the meaning we make from a given situation.

The definition of emotion is quite complex, and there is still much debate surrounding the topic. In general, however, we can say that emotion refers to a mental state associated with various feelings, sensations, and thoughts.

It can be both positive and negative, and it often arises in response to some sort of stimulus. Emotions are generally short-lived, while moods can last for longer periods of time.

Human emotions are often more intense than moods, and they tend to be more specific in nature. For example, we may feel joy when we see our loved ones or anger when someone cuts us off in traffic.

Negative emotions are also called difficult emotions sometimes. On the other hand, Moods are typically less intense and more general in nature.

We might describe ourselves as being in a bad mood if we're feeling irritable or unhappy overall. There are a number of benefits associated with positive emotions, including increased physical health, improved mental well-being, and better social relationships.

Positive emotions can also lead to creativity and innovation, and they often play a role in resilience during difficult times. We all experience emotions on a daily basis.

However, we may not even be aware of some of the nuances and complexities involved in human emotion. In this blog post, we will explore 49+ human emotion facts that you probably haven't heard before!

These facts cover a wide range of topics, from love to fear to envy. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed compiling them!

Meaning Of Emotions

Emotion is the state of mind that we have, and it affects our physical and psychological state. In this paragraph, we will be discussing the meaning of emotions.

Most people consider emotions and feelings as the same. Naturally, we have also thought of them as synonyms of emotional state, however, they both are only dependent on each other but have rather different meanings.

Emotions are generated subconsciously and describe psychological states. Generally, emotions are autonomous bodily responses to some extent or internal events.

On the other hand, feelings are subjective experiences of emotions and are a result of conscious thoughts and reflections.

This statement also means that we can have emotions without having any feelings. However, it is not possible to have feelings without having any emotions.

Emotions are typically referred to as a response to stimuli that have physiological changes involved, such as increased body temperature, increased pulse rate, change in breathing rate, and motivating a person to act. In simple terms, we can say that emotions are the feelings of our brain, just like what physical sensations are to our bodies.

When stability, safety, and nurturance are found lacking, Children might start to misunderstand the emotions of others.

Adults are usually advised to show only positive emotions around children because children are excellent observers, and they might misinterpret other human emotions.

Our behavioral response sometimes makes us take decisions that we would not have taken in normal conditions.

This is the reason why teachers in kindergarten don't show any anger while being around children, as the children might think that their teacher is mad at them, even if the teacher is irritated because of some other issues.

In the English language alone, there are over 400 words that describe certain kinds of human emotions. This describes how important emotions are to people.

The emotions happen after something happens around you, and you pay attention to a certain detail.

Because in our daily day to day lives, we see and hear a lot of things happening around us, such as a person two seats away reading the newspaper, a car going in its direction, and many more, but we feel emotional only on those things that we pay attention to, or that have any value in our lives.

Types Of Emotions

There are various types of emotion, and most of them are very distinct from each other such as anger, fear, happiness, and each one of these emotions have unique facial expressions.

Although there are many types of emotions, all of them are broadly categorized into two types, basic emotions and combining emotions.

In the 1970s, Paul Eckman, a psychologist, identified the three basic emotions that, according to him, were experienced in all human cultures. These emotions were surprise, happiness, fear, sadness, disgust, and anger. Later, he added four new emotions to his list of basic emotions: pride, embarrassment, shame, and excitement.

The combining emotions, according to Psychologist Robert Plutchik, worked as a color wheel, and he put forth a 'wheel of emotions. Emotions can be combined to form a different set of secondary emotions. For example, basic human emotions like trust and joy can be combined to form love.

All the emotions are expressed through some type of body language, for example, in facial expressions, our body seems to relax when we are happy. Strong emotion can be sensed by noticing changes in facial muscles, such as it takes 10 facial muscles to smile while only six facial muscles to frown.

Happiness is expressed with a facial expression of smiling, a relaxed body stance, and the tone of voice is also changed to a pleasant and upbeat one. Happiness is the emotion that people strive for all the time.

Sadness is usually defined as a state of feelings of grief, disappointment, and dampened mood.

Sadness is experienced by crying, lethargy, quietness, dampened mood, withdrawal from other people.

Although the behavior of different people also decides their actions while going through a certain feeling.

Modern scientists have found 27 distinct categories of emotions found in all demographically diverse people.

These 27 emotions are adoration, admiration, appreciation, aesthetic, amusement, anger, awkwardness, awe, calmness, boredom, craving, confusion, empathic pain, disgust, entrancement, fear, horror, excitement, joy, interest, relief, nostalgia, sadness, romance, sexual desire, satisfaction, surprise.

Primary emotions are those that we experience first and foremost, while secondary emotions are those we experience in response to other emotions.

For example, joy is a primary emotion, while relief is a secondary emotion.

How do emotions affect the brain?

Every emotion has a different effect on our minds. Just like anger increases our heartbeat, increases body temperature and so on. In this section, we will be discussing about how emotions affect our brain.

Emotional regulation is very necessary for our brain to work properly.

We need them to remember, transfer, retrieve and connect all new information to what we already are aware of.

When negative emotions flood into our brain, its architecture changes leaving us in stress- a response state where anger, fear, frustration, anxiety, and sadness take over our logical brain.

The brain's capacity to rewire, strengthening its pathways between all the neurons that are used while weakening connections between cellular pathways which are not retrieved, is called neuroplasticity.

It includes reappraising or reframing an experience, relationship, or event so that we observe and get a different outcome. This is because what we perceive and what we expect is what we get because our brain does not respond to reality but to perceptions.

Changing or controlling your emotions is what we call 'emotional regulation', and scientists have proved that the way you change or control your emotions influences how you feel. Still, it also affects the people that are around you.

Hence, it becomes very necessary to successfully process and regulate emotions in humans.

Emotions manifest in our bodies in a number of ways. For example, when we feel happy, our heart rate tends to slow down, and we experience emotions of joy and contentment.

On the other hand, when we feel angry or scared, our heart rate tends to increase, and we may experience emotions of hostility or anxiety.

Because difficulties in emotional regulation might result in many mental health issues in teenagers, children, and adults.

The way our brain processes emotions now can be studied using a technique called Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

An MRI shows us what exactly goes on scientifically when we want to see how our brain works in different emotions.

Oxygen-rich blood gives different signals to MRI receiving cameras compared with the blood that contains less oxygen.

For centuries, thinkers such as Plato, Darwin, Aristotle, and many other scientists have tried to define emotions as common sense. Emotions feel uncontrollable and natural, so reasoning implies that we must be born with them.

However, in recent years, neuroscience has developed a lot and found somewhat different answers to these questions.

For many years, we kept on thinking that the fear circuit in our body is activated by a region called the amygdala. However, modern science has proved that it's people who lack an amygdala.

Emotional abuse and other unpleasant emotions that are traumatic experiences cause mental pain depending on a person's capability to handle them.

Complex emotions have highly variable appearances such as jealousy, regret and grief.

Emotions such as pride, shame, and disgust depend on the development of the social awareness of an individual.

Out of all emotions, happiness is considered as number one emotion as everyone in this world seeks more for happiness compared to any other emotion.

Importance Of Emotions

Every emotion has its own importance, even if we talk about fear, guilt or anger. In this paragraph, we will be talking about different emotions and how they are important in our life.

Emotions play a very important role in our thought and directly control how we think and then behave.

Emotions are highly influenced by interconnected structures, a network of the brain that builds up the limbic system.

Emotions work as great motivation for someone to act. One of the most simple examples is that we start to feel anxious as the exam dates approach us, we start to feel anxious, and it is because of this anxiety that we get the motivation to go and study.

While facing a certain emotion, you take certain actions that were decided mostly because of the emotions that you felt at that time.

We also take most of our actions so that we can get to experience some positive emotions such as happiness and pride.

This can be stated as that emotions increase the chances that we will take an action. Like when we get angry, then we are motivated to confront the source of our irritation, and we are afraid, we most likely flee the thread.

Emotions also help us avoid most of the dangers. Naturalist Charles Darwin was one of the earliest researchers to study emotions scientifically.

He suggested that the display of emotions could also play a vital role in safety and survival.

If you encounter a spitting or hissing creature, it would mean that it is angry and defensive, and an urge to back off and avoid any possible danger is emotionally felt.

The amygdala is responsible for triggering the emotional responses that make our body ready to cope with things like anger or fear and boosts adrenaline for better physical instincts.

Fear sometimes triggers the body's fight or flight response when we get into a surprise situation that could be a danger for us. It leads to a number of psychological responses which prepare us to either stay and counter the danger or flee to safety.

Emotions also affect our decisions and have a major influence on them. From very basic decisions such as deciding what to have for breakfast to major decisions such as which candidate to vote is all highly influenced by our emotions.

We sometimes feel that the decisions that we are taking are purely guided by rationality and logic, but in reality, emotions still play a key role. The ability to manage and understand emotions, called emotional intelligence, is proved to play an important role in decision-making.

Several types of research have found that people who have a certain type of brain damage affecting the ability to experience emotions are also found to have a decreased ability to make good decisions.

We can control our behavioral responses depending on how intense feelings we have at the moment.

Our immune system also sometimes change our emotional states so that we do not get in contact with places that could certainly make us ill.

Emotions also help people understand each other better. Showing emotions through facial expressions or other body language gives clues so that other people can understand what you are feeling like.

Research suggests that an average person experiences 2.5 times more positive emotions than they do any negative emotions.

Emotions also allow you to understand others just as they help others understand you better.

It is a two-way process, and the emotional experiences of people around you also give a wealth of social information.

To react and interpret to emotions of others, social communication becomes an important part of your life.

It allows you to have an appropriate response and build a more meaningful and deeper relationship with your family, friends, and all loved ones.

It even allows you to communicate effectively in a number of social situations, from dealing with irritating customers to managing a short-tempered employee.

It should be made clear that emotional displays of others help us in getting clear information about how we might have to respond in a specific situation.

A person who is unable to feel any emotion is called emotionally detached or has alexithymia. Such people find themselves not getting emotionally connected and are unable to express their true emotions.

True emotions refer to the real emotion that a person is feeling at any moment. A person can fake their facial expressions or even body language but not their true emotions.