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In the last episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, we discussed what would happen if we had no
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emotions.
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In this episode, I'd like to talk about the surprising truth about how emotions are
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made.
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There are many theories of emotion, but I'm just going to be discussing one: the theory
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of constructed emotion which was coined by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett.
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I think you'll find that this theory is interesting, unintuitive, and important; you'll
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never look at emotion the same way again.
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Without further hesitation, let's just keep on jumping into it.
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Perhaps, the best place to start is with the brain.
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The brain evolved to serve the body.
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You body is full of resources that need to be balanced and kept in a healthy range.
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Dr. Barrett coins a useful term here: body-budget.
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Your body needs to maintain a healthy budget of these resources, so you can survive and
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thrive.
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Anytime there is change in your body budget, some basic feelings will arise within you
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called affect.
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Affect is different from emotion.
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It only has two-dimensions: valence and arousal.
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You can feel pleasant or unpleasant.
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Aroused or unaroused; in other words, calm or agitated.
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Things that impact your body budget in a positive way make you feel good.
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Things that impact your body budget in a negative way make you feel bad.
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Again, this is affect and not emotion.
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Affect is a part of being conscious, and the reason we feel it is still a scientific mystery.
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You're not born with the knowledge of how to control your body budget.
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You begin learning this as a baby.
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Our brains construct models of the world, based on our past experiences, that help us
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regulate ourselves.
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Now, here's a very important point: our models of the world are predictive — not
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reactive.
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Your brain is governed by prediction -> correction, not stimulus -> response.
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According to Barrett and other scientists, prediction is a lot more efficient and adaptive
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than reaction.
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Your brain doesn't just predict what's happening in the external world — it also
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predicts what's going on inside of you.
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A brain should make you feel thirsty before you're completely dehydrated; it should
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make you feel afraid at the ledge of the cliff, and not when you've already fallen off.
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Your past experiences make up your model.
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Your model is made to regulate your body budget.
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Your model predicts what's going to happen in the world at every moment.
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Ideally, if the prediction is wrong, then your brain will update its model.
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Based on its prediction, it will modify your body budget and make you feel some affect.
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Where does emotion come into this?
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Your model of the world is made up of concepts or categories.
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This conceptual model is incredibly flexible.
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You can combine old concepts to make new concepts.
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Even though I've never seen one, I can combine an alligator, with a snake, with a large bird,
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with fire to imagine a new creature: a dragon.
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Concepts come together based on our goals as individuals.
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They are not static things.
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For example, let's say that my goal was to hold down a stack of papers.
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Now, I have to look for things that can be a paperweight.
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Literally anything with a sufficient amount of weight can serve as a paperweight: a rock,
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a vase, a computer, a person, so on and so forth.
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Dr. Barrett says that emotions are goal-based concepts that we construct based on our past
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experiences.
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Let's say that someone cuts you off in traffic.
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The emotion you construct will depend on what your brain predicts is happening outside of
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you, inside of you, and what your goal is.
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If you predict that someone tried to hurt you or didn't value your life, your body
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budget will change, you'll feel an agitated affect, and you will honk the horn with the
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goal of saying, “I MATTER!”.
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You've constructed the emotion of anger.
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However, if you predict that the person is on their way to the hospital, your body budget
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will change, you'll stay calm, and you'll slow down with the goal of letting the person
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who cut you off travel effectively.
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You've constructed the emotion of sympathy or empathy.
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In Dr. Barrett's words, “[emotions] are a prescription for action”.
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Emotions are predictions about how we should act in order to achieve a goal.
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These predictions are based on past experiences, and they are concepts that we construct.
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There is a lot of variation in the types of emotions we can feel and how they are expressed.
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Ultimately, this means that we are responsible for how we construct our conceptual model
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of the world because this will control our predictions.
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We'll talk about this in a future video.
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You might find this idea hard to grasp at first.
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It's pretty new and unintuitive.
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But, this is a scientific theory with a lot of evidence to support it.
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It also has important implications for society.
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If you really want a more accurate and detailed understanding of the theory, I highly recommend
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reading Dr. Barrett's book on the topic: How Emotions Are Made.
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I've put a link in the description.
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As always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time!