The Emotional Lexicon
By Kate DowlerHave you ever wondered what impact your vocabulary might have on the way you feel and how you empathise with others? We explore Dr Lisa Feldman-Barrett’s groundbreaking theory of constructed emotion.
In the world of insight and design research, a lot of importance is placed on identifying and exploring the emotions that underpin the user experience. Doing this is fundamental to understanding the value of your product or service, as well as helping you identify unmet needs that can be the foundation for innovation.
I’m always on the look-out for better ways of identifying, understanding and translating emotion, and have recently been reflecting on Dr. Lisa Feldman-Barrett’s book How Emotions are Made, which challenges the ‘classical’ view of emotion and provides a new perspective on what emotions are, and how they are constructed.
How emotions are made
Feldman-Barrett's research challenges the widely held, ‘classical’ view of emotion which states that emotions “live” in distinct parts of the brain and are universally expressed and recognized.
Her research argues that emotions are not “hard-wired” in the brain, and that there is no such thing as universal emotions that exist across people, nations and cultures.
She proposes instead that emotion is constructed in the moment, by core systems that interact across the whole brain, aided by a lifetime of learning. This theory of Constructed Emotion takes its name from its central premise: that emotions are concepts that are constructed by the brain.
Emotional granularity
One of the most intriguing aspects in the book is the idea of emotional granularity: the ability to construct and identify more precise emotions. If someone doesn’t have a concept to describe an emotion, they won’t be able to perceive it. They’ll still feel the bodily sensations, but won’t be able to label them precisely.
In other words, the range of emotions a person can experience is limited by their emotional granularity – the ability to construct more precise emotional experiences.
Taking this to extremes, someone who only has the ability to distinguish between “good” and “bad” feelings has low emotional granularity. Whereas someone who has high emotional granularity will distinguish between many different types of “good” feeling, for example: relaxed, excited, happy, hopeful, grateful, content, fulfilled etc.
The language of emotion
In the discussion of emotional granularity, Feldman-Barrett touches on the role of language as a powerful enabler. Having words for distinct emotions is an important tool in the development of emotional concepts. These words help us to categorise and construct emotions, making us better equipped to make sense of our inner lives.
This part of the book really got me thinking. As a researcher seeking to identify and understand emotion, am I limited by my own emotional granularity? And does my English language vocabulary limit my ability to identify and empathise with the emotions of others?
Learning from languages
My investigation into the language of emotion led to the discovery of a diverse range of very specific (high emotional granularity) emotions that exist in other languages, which don’t exist in English. There are so many interesting ones to choose from, for example…
Jeong (Korean) - the feeling of attachment to a close friend
Gigil (Tagalog) – the irresistible urge to pinch or squeeze someone because they are loved or cherished
Desenrascanço (Portuguese) – to artfully disentangle oneself from a troublesome situation
Orenda (Huron) – the power of the human will to change the world in the face of powerful forces such as fate
Goya - not to be confused with the artist! (Urdu) - the transporting suspension of disbelief that happens when fantasy is so realistic that it temporarily becomes reality
Mamihlapinatapei (Yaghan) - the wordless, meaningful look shared by two people who both want to initiate something, but are reluctant to do so.
……and my personal favourite
Iktsuarpok (Inuit) – the anticipation one feels when waiting for someone, whereby one keeps going outside to check if they have arrived
Why is it important?
For those working in the field of consumer insight and design research, understanding the emotions that drive behaviour and underpin experiences is fundamental to making sense of consumer data, insights and observations.
So, as researchers, having high emotional granularity should make us better equipped to identify and understand emotions in the subjects that we observe and speak to. In the theory of constructed emotion, learning is a big part of developing emotional concepts, so it follows that having a wider emotional vocabulary should help us gain a deeper understanding of the needs, desires and emotions we observe in others.
For me, the big take-out from the book is a resolution to widen my emotional vocabulary to include emotion words from other languages, as well as less common English words, and incorporate them into my own emotional directory, as a tool to help me become a better researcher.
To end with something inspiring, consider the beautiful Serbian word Merak - the pursuit of small pleasures everyday, which add up to a feeling of contentment, fulfilment and oneness with the world.