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Home , Evolution of emotion, History of emotions

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H The of happiness is a subjective, for . Recent research has found that an individ- valenced reaction to a positive experience or event (Ort- ual’s experiences of happiness can be significantly bol- ony et al. 1988). Happiness can be conceptualized as an stered by the regular, committed practice of activities umbrella term that encompasses a variety of positive such as counting blessings, expressing optimism, and per- , ranging from the low-intensity states of *con- forming acts of (Lyubomirsky et al. 2005b). In tentment, *enjoyment, serenity, and * to the sum, frequent happiness is a highly valued goal that is high-intensity states of elation, *, and . partially a function of *temperament, but can also be These positive states are typically experienced when a attained through effortful intentional activity. person is making progress towards the realization of SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY AND JAIME L. KURTZ *goals (Carver and Scheier 1998), and, notably, signal that the environment is benign and safe for both relax- Hatred, the noun, and to hate, the verb, do not ation and exploration (Schwarz and Clore 1983). As such, completely coincide in their semantic ranges. Hatred researchers had originally conceptualized a happy emo- carries with it more intensity and greater seriousness tion as producing a form of ‘free activation’ that is than many of our most common uses of the verb. conducive to creativity and divergent thought (Frijda Hatred is unlikely to apply aptly to one’s feelings about 1986, Isen et al. 1992). Extending this idea, Fredrickson’s broccoli, though it would be perfectly normal to register (2001) broaden-and-build model argued that feelings of one’s aversion to it by saying ‘I hate broccoli’. In daily happiness are functional, such that they open people up speech, hate can be used to indicate a fairly strong but to creative endeavours and novel approaches to prob- not very serious aversion to a film, novel, or food, all the lem-solving, as well as building social, physical, and way to desiring, with varying seriousness, the extermin- intellectual resources that prepare them for future chal- ation of an entire people. The word hate can thus mark a lenges (see positive ). Consistent with this rea- powerful moral/immoral *sentiment, or merely register soning, the frequency of happy emotions has been found a negative *preference. In this it tracks Latin usage, to be positively related to approach-related motivation, where the verb, odi, and the noun odium, can be used effective coping, physical health and longevity, strong to register both simple aversion and also an intense social support, satisfaction with social relationships, pro- of all-consuming detestation. social behaviour, productivity in the workplace, and Attempts to get at the substance of hatred in the other markers of success (Lyubomirsky et al. 2005a). In philosophical tradition focus mostly on how to distin- short, happiness is more than a hedonically pleasant guish it from *. Both anger and hatred accompany state. It is the means to a variety of positive ends that and inform relations of , but not in quite the have value for both the individual and the society at same way. Following Aristotle, the usual view is that large. anger is tied up with claims for redress against a par- In the light of these benefits, it is natural to ticular person for particular wrongs, whereas hatred whether the frequency with which people experience need no personal involvement; we can hate a person happy emotions can be increased and maintained. Some for what or who he or she is even without knowing cite evidence suggesting that people have a genetically them. Thus whole groups can be hated. Aristotle (384– determined set point for experiences of happiness— 322 bc) gives thieves and informers as examples. The namely, a baseline to which they gravitate following tri- grim history of the 20th century would add whole umphs or setbacks (Lykken and Tellegen 1996). In add- peoples based on religion, ethnicity, or race. Anger, ition, temporally stable and cross-situationally consistent Aristotle says, is curable and can be repaired via com- personality traits such as *extraversion and * pensation, , or apology. Unlike anger, which can are highly predictive of a person’s reports of happiness exhaust itself within moments, hatred decays slowly if at (Costa and McCrae 1980). Although these observations all; it endures. The angry man might feel , says highlight the futility of pursuing lasting improvements in Aristotle, but not the hater; for the angry man wants the frequency of happy emotions, there are also reasons the person he is angry at to suffer, while the hater wants 203 sander & Scherer Sander-AlphaH Page Proof page 204 28.2.2009 10:08am

health/clinical aspects (of ) him not to exist. Roughly then, anger is about acts, altogether impossible to give any definition of the pas- hatred about the mere existence of the hated. sions of and hatred’. Folk wisdom, not incorrectly, sees a link between W. I. MILLER *love and hate, each tied up with the other, not just as opposites but also as marking the roil and turmoil of close health/clinical aspects (of affect) see addiction; relations. It is disputed whether both can be co-experi- alexithymia; anhedonia; antisocial behaviour; ; enced, though a good portion of the world’s best known ; autism; bipolar disorder; cognitive behaviour literature and not a little of our own experience would be therapy; cognitive bias; denial; ; disinhibition; incomprehensible if they could not be. Their relation is disorder (affective, emotional); dysphoria; eustress; not symmetrical: hatred does not bring about the condi- health and emotion; hypomania; illness cognitions and tions for love, though love (spurned, betrayed) can read- emotion; impulsivity; inflammation (and mood); mania; ily supply the conditions for hatred. Both hatred and love mood disorders; narcissism; obsessive–compulsive dis- share a focused intensity; both, strangely, involve caring. order; (biological perspectives); pain (philosophical Both love and hatred are held to be character defining for perspectives); disorder; paranoia; phobias; post- those who feel them, with hatred maybe beating out love traumatic stress disorder; psychopathy; psychoneuroen- in this regard, for it seems we derive as much (or more) of docrinology; psychoneuroimmunology; psychosomatic our sense of who we are from our as from our disorders; repression; resilience; risk factors for emo- . Thus it may be that though haters want their tional disorders; risk-taking; rumination; separation anx- objects dead, they may find they need to resurrect them iety; stress; unipolar disorder; violence; vulnerability; or reinvent them in order to maintain their own sense of well-being. self: to wish, in Othello’s idiom, the hated one a thousand so he can keep on killing him. health and emotion According to the World Health Many of the distinctions between anger and hatred Organization health is defined as ‘a state of complete break down on closer inspection. We can hate individ- physical, mental and social well-being and not merely uals no less than groups. Consistently being angered by the absence of disease or infirmity’. While the regulation someone can lead to hate, and hate can easily trigger or dysregulation of emotion has clearly been identified anger. as a key factor in mental health (see disorder (affective, Darwin (1809–82), with his usual perspicuity, recog- emotional)), whether or not emotion plays a role in nized that hatred mixes and mingles with other closely determining physical health outcomes is more contro- related sentiments depending on the relative status of versial. References to the idea that emotions influence the parties. Hatred for the lowly is not just tied up with physical health can be found in the Bible and repeatedly and but disgust and contempt may in throughout history. While many aspects of early ideas fact be the form hatred of the low takes. Hatred of the about how emotion influences physical health have been high by the low, he says, is closely annexed to , if not refuted, there is suYcient evidence of linkage that the also a form of it. Nietzsche’s (1844–1900) well-known relationship continues to be actively investigated (Kub- account is that morality itself owes its very being to a zansky 2005). As research methods and technologies particular form of hatred the weak have for the strong: have improved, investigators have been able to explore ressentiment. But the genocides of the 20th century have the question with more compelling and methodologic- shown that hatred has an even more remarkable trans- ally rigorous studies than was previously possible. formative power: it allows the strong to invest the weak Emotion might be related to physical health in a with magical and phantasmal powers of control, insinu- variety of ways. Emotions might influence the develop- ation, infection, and pollution. A true history of hatred ment of disease. Alternatively, emotions may exacerbate would have to come to terms with anti-Semitism. symptomatology or trigger acute disease-related events. Much routine hatred is experienced less as an emo- Additionally, emotion may affect the progression of tion than as a quasiformal attitude of opposition, of disease. Emotions may also affect compliance with med- obligatory enmity. And, when experienced as an emo- ical regimen and disease management. Disease may also tion, hatred may never exist uncoloured variously by influence emotion states, since being ill is distressing. anger, disgust, contempt, fear, , competitiveness, To understand how or why emotions influence and all-consuming love. For this reason too it has not health, it is important to know how the term ‘emotion’ been studied systematically in the scientific way anger is conceptualized. Specific emotions are considered to has; it encompasses too many disparate inner states and be biologically based, and mediate between continually outer settings for traditional psychological experimenta- changing situations and the individual’s behaviour tion to get at. Even the most brilliant of philosophers (Frijda 1986). A major task of early childhood is devel- despair. Thus ’s (1711–76) observation: ‘’Tis oping the ability to regulate emotions (see childhood 204 sander & Scherer Sander-AlphaH Page Proof page 205 28.2.2009 10:08am

heuristics emotional development), and both the social environ- Findings from experimental, prospective observa- ment and *personality play an important role in shaping tional, and studies have converged to suggest regulatory capacity and the resulting emotional experi- that emotions significantly influence physical health ences. Positive and negative states represent outcomes (Everson-Rose and Lewis 2005, Kiecolt-Glaser distinct emotional forces, and effective emotion regula- et al. 2002). The best evidence has been provided in tion (see regulation of emotion) is probably related to relation to cardiovascular diseases. However, evidence the achievement of some form of balance between has also been presented in relation to numerous other positive and negative emotion (Rozanski et al. 2005). outcomes including diabetes, cancer, infectious diseases, Thus, emotions may be considered to be adaptive and lung function, disability, and mortality. While most functionally appropriate processes which have dysfunc- studies have focused on the harmful effects of negative tional consequences when the frequency, strength, or emotions, limited work has also found positive emo- duration with which they occur is excessive(see func- tions to have a protective effect. tionalist theories of emotion). Failure to learn appro- Although evidence increasingly supports the role of priate strategies for emotion regulation in childhood emotion in determining health outcomes, we have not may set up a chain of risk, whereas effective regulation yet reached a detailed understanding of this relationship. may lead to accruing resilience in relation to physical For example, we have not established the duration or health. intensity of emotion experience that is needed to influ- Emotions have identifiable cognitive, neurobio- ence health, nor determined whether such effects are logical, and behavioural components. The experience reversible. The importance of the social environment in of most emotions occurs along a continuum ranging shaping and modifying emotional processes and their from normal to pathological, and the components of subsequent health effects needs to be considered, with emotion are essentially similar regardless of where on given to how these experiences unfold and the continuum an emotion reaction lies (Clark and accumulate across the course. Additional under- Watson 1994). As a result, effects of emotion on physical standing may be used to develop strategies for prevent- health may occur across the emotion continuum. Inter- ing disease and promoting health. estingly, studies using symptom measures of negative LAURA D. KUBZANSKY emotion have not suggested a threshold at which dam- Everson-Rose, S.A. and Lewis, T.T. (2005). Psychosocial factors aging effects are more likely to occur; rather risk appears and cardiovascular diseases. Annual Review of Public Health, to increase with each additional symptom (Kubzansky 26, 469–500. and Kawachi 2000). Rozanski, A., Blumenthal, J.A., Davidson, K.W., Saab, P., and Most emotions may be seen either as transitory states Kubzansky, L.D. (2005). The epidemiology, pathophysiology, brought on by specific situations, or as traits, i.e. stable and management of psychosocial risk factors in cardiac prac- and general dispositions to experience particular emo- tice: the emerging field of behavioral cardiology. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 45, 637–51. tions (Frijda 1994). Thus, emotions may directly affect the development of disease via biological alterations that occur as a result of either cumulative effects of heuristics A heuristic is any procedure which simplifies repeated emotion experiences or an acute emotion epi- a calculation, choice, or judgement, either by restricting sode. For example, negative emotions activate a ‘stress the amount of information that is considered or the response’. This involves a cascade of hormonal and complexity of ways in which it is combined (see neural activity whereby stored energy is converted to bounded rationality). For example, the rule of thumb a usable resource, and growth and repair functions are for converting degrees Celcius to degrees Fahrenheit inhibited (see stress). Emotions may also indirectly (‘double and add 30’) is a heuristic; it replaces a more influence the development of disease via behavioural, diYcult operation (multiplying by 1.8 and adding 32) cognitive, and social processes. For example, emotions with something simpler. Like many other heuristics, motivate health-related behaviours and influence the this causes predictable errors (overestimating tempera- availability of coping resources. Negative emotions ture when it is cool and underestimating temperature have been linked to smoking, excessive alcohol con- when it is hot), but it approximates the correct calcula- sumption (see addiction), and lower physical activity, tion and is often close enough (Simon 1978). and in turn these processes are risk factors for an array Many heuristics are designed to simplify choices of diseases. Emotions influence cognitive and decision- among multidimensional alternatives (for reviews see making processes like symptom perception and health- Payne et al., 1993, and Gigerenzer et al., 1999). For care use, and may also disrupt or promote social rela- example, a lexicographical (or ‘take the best’) heuristic tionships, which are themselves associated with health selects the alternative that is superior on the most outcomes. important attribute, neglecting all other information. 205 sander & Scherer Sander-AlphaH Page Proof page 206 28.2.2009 10:08am

history of emotion

Such choice heuristics are degraded versions of optimal tions and the concept of emotion may have changed procedures which have, by necessity and design, been over historical time. The topic borders on the cross- stripped down to accommodate cognitive limitations in cultural variation of emotion (see cultural specicity), short-term memory and computational capacity. These from which it differs in that history involves a certain heuristics are viewed as heuristics by the people who chronological continuity; but a single society at diverse use them, who will readily describe what they are doing stages may well exhibit greater disparities than contem- as a simplifying strategy. porary but apparently unrelated cultures. To the extent Not all heuristics, however, are best conceived as that emotions vary in response to new historical condi- deliberate simplifying strategies. Some reflect differences tions, they will appear to be culturally constructed (see in the fluency of mental operations required to process constructivism). But change presupposes a substrate the different types of information relevant to the that undergoes modification, which suggests that there requested judgement (Kahneman et al. 1982). For ex- are some transhistorical constants, although these may ample, when asked to predict the future outcome of a be at the level of emotional components rather than woman with a history of political activism, people gen- emotions themselves (see componential theories). erally considered it more likely that she turned out to be The history of emotion is thus a site at which construct- both a bank teller and an active feminist than that she ivist and universalist (see universality of emotion) the- became ‘just’ a bank teller (Tversky and Kahneman ories of emotion may fruitfully intersect. 1983). This reflects the fact that one piece of information ‘Emotion’ is a relatively recent term in English, hav- relevant to such predictions (the similarity between her ing won out over *‘passion’, ‘’, and ‘sentiment’ history and her life’s outcome) is ‘computed’ much only in the past 200 years. These words vary in meaning more readily than the other key piece—the statistical and in the range of responses they cover. Still greater incidence of feminists, bank tellers, and feminist bank discontinuities are to be expected over longer periods of tellers. Although basing probability judgements on a time and across . The ancient Greek term computation of similarity has the effect of conserving (plural patheˆ), which most closely corresponds effort (because the presence of a plausible answer ter- to ‘emotion’, can refer to almost any experience, but minates the judgmental process), people do not gener- even in the affective sphere it embraces, in one list, ally regard their judgement as resulting from a simpler , pain, , and contempt and in another version of another procedure they might instead per- love, anger, drunkenness, and ambition (Rhetoric to Alex- form. ander). Aristotle (384–322 bc) in his Rhetoric analyses Kahneman and Frederick (2002, 2005) proposed a anger and the allaying of anger, love, hatred, fear, general model of heuristic judgement called attribute confidence, , , pity, indignation, envy, substitution. They argued that people frequently answer emulousness, and contempt, which are nearer to mod- a slightly different question from the one they were ern inventories; still, only two of these figure among asked without being aware of the substitution. This Ekman’s *basic emotions. can occur whenever the attribute being judged (e.g. Individual emotions may also change over time. probability) is less readily accessible than some concep- *, for example, has evolved over the past two tually related attribute (e.g. similarity). These intuitive centuries in the United States in tandem with the con- judgements can be overridden when people are cued to ception of romantic love (Stearns 1989), and no term in consider other inputs or search for logical flaws, but classical Greek or Latin exactly corresponds to it (the often are not. Moreover, the power of intuitions re- Greek root zeˆlos means something like ‘competitive mains and continues to compete with more careful zeal’; Konstan 2006). English *‘envy’ derives from and deliberate analyses, and even a thorough under- Latin invidia, but in ancient Rome invidia signified not standing of the logic does not always dislodge a con- just malicious but also trasting intuitive impression. When reflecting on the (Kaster 2005). The conception of pity has shifted over bank teller problem, Stephen Jay Gould (1991) remarked: time from a positive emotion to a religious duty to a ‘I know [the right answer], yet a little homunculus in negative attitude bordering on contempt. Even so fun- my head continues to jump up and down, shouting at damental an emotion as *anger may vary. A modern me – ‘‘But she can’t just be a bank teller; read the dictionary defines anger as ‘a strong feeling of displeas- description’’.’ ure and usually of antagonism’ (Merriam-Webster, SHANE FREDERICK http://www.merriam-webster.com/), whereas Aristotle defines orgeˆ—the closest analogue to anger—as ‘a desire, history of emotion The history of emotion refers here accompanied by pain, for a perceived revenge on ac- not to the emergence of emotion in the course of count of a perceived slight’. Aristotle’s view that is (see ) but to how emo- the sole cause of anger corresponds to a society highly 206 sander & Scherer Sander-AlphaH Page Proof page 207 28.2.2009 10:08am

hot cognition conscious of status and honour; subsequent centuries ber that was housed with other evils, implying that witnessed a greater emphasis on anger control (Harris it could be as dangerous as or . However, 2001). Attitudes toward expressions of and weeping hope also kept humanity from being filled with *despair, (male and female) have also varied considerably; ancient and so had considerable value. A later meaning of hope Rome legislated the length of time allowed for mourn- is found in Christian theology, which groups it with ing—less for newborn than for older children. But and charity as theological virtues and defines hope as the change does not necessarily imply progress or a ‘civiliz- desire and search for a future good. With God’s help, ing process’, in Norbert Elias’ phrase, according to even a diYcult good could be attained. The current which ostensibly primitive emotions are refined over meaning of hope is similar but secular: a wish or *desire time (cf. Harris 2001, Rosenwein 2006). Recent research, accompanied by some *expectation of its fulfilment. for example, has emphasized the intensity of familial Although a much more recent arrival on the lexical affection in the early modern period despite high infant scene, optimism is a close cousin of hope, and research mortality rates. may use the terms interchangeably. If one A historical perspective on emotion can help attune is careful about meanings, though, hope is more emo- investigators to the provisional or transient nature of tional and carries connotations of perseverance, modern categories. It may also enrich modern theoret- whereas optimism is more cognitive and purely expec- ical approaches (see emotion theories and concepts tational. (philosophical perspectives)). Aristotle’s treatment of The best-known psychological work on hope was emotions depends crucially on appraisal (for example, done by C. Rick Snyder, who created several version an insult that arouses anger must be intentional), and his of a Hope Scale, a brief, face-valid, self-report survey definition of patheˆ as ‘those things on account of which that measures two components of hope as he conceived people change and differ in regard to their judgements, it. The first component is agency (someone’s determin- and upon which attend pain and pleasure’ is highly ation that goals can be achieved) and the second path- cognitive in character (see appraisal theories). In clas- ways (someone’s beliefs that successful plans can be sical antiquity emotions were often assumed to be sub- generated to reach these goals). Studies show that ject to persuasion and were discussed in treatises on hope thus measured has a variety of desirable correlates rhetoric, like Aristotle’s, but it is only recently that and consequences, including *well-being, *happiness, experimental psychologists have begun to examine and general *life satisfaction. how emotions motivate beliefs. Emotions were often CHRISTOPHER PETERSON expressly related to status and relations of power— Peterson, C. (2000). The future of optimism. American Psycholo- Romans denied that slaves experienced shame, and gist, 55, 44–55. anger was a prerogative of royalty for some medieval Snyder, C.R. (ed.) (2000). Handbook of hope: theory, measures, and writers; power, however, is often elided in modern applications. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. analyses. Emotions were also conceived principally as reactions to the behaviour of morally responsible hot cognition Hot cognition has been proposed as one agents; but the central role of *agency is a relatively of two central constructs for clarifying the interaction of new theme in modern treatments of emotion. emotion and cognition within the hot system/cool sys- Understanding how the emotions of past societies tem framework (see cool cognition). The hot system is may have differed from ours and how they evolved the basis of — as well as passions. It is requires the meticulous interpretation of sources, both impulsive, rigid, simple, and fast. Initially responsive to scientific and literary, together with a thorough ac- innate releasing stimuli, with experience it becomes quaintance with modern emotion research. The fruits responsive to conditioned stimuli. It is fundamental for are of more than antiquarian ; but the work is and is thought to centre on the still only beginning. *. Characterized by stereotypy and affective DAVID KONSTAN primacy, it is triggered selectively by fear-provoking * Gross, D.M. (2006). The secret history of emotion: from Aristotle’s and appetitive stimuli, generating feelings of fear or of Rhetoric to modern science. Chicago: University of Chi- *desire, and impulsive urges. The hot system contrib- cago Press. utes the feeling components to the phenomenology. Reddy, W.M. (2001). The navigation of feeling: a framework for the The contrasting cool system, which is emotionally neu- . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. tral, flexible, strategic, and slow, constrains the hot sys- tem. If unconstrained, the hot system can give rise to an hope Hope has figured in Western discourse at least inability to delay gratification, explosive temper, un- since the myth of Pandora, and the reader may remem- bridled violence, and unchecked sexual impulses, with 207 sander & Scherer Sander-AlphaH Page Proof page 208 28.2.2009 10:08am

hypomania their obvious personal and social consequences. It may the individual’s typical mood state. The symptom cri- also produce unwanted emotional states including crav- teria for hypomania (bipolar II) are identical to those ings and . The crucial balance between the hot for *mania (bipolar I) but the time criterion is shorter and cool systems is determined by stress, developmental (4 days instead of a week). Additional differences are level, and the individual’s self-regulatory dynamics, and that hypomanic symptoms are associated with a clear may be influenced by disease, pharmaceutical interven- change in functioning (as opposed to marked impair- tions, priming, or learning. While the hot system, if ment in functioning or the need for hospitalization poorly controlled, can produce negative emotional or characteristic of mania) and that unlike some forms of social behaviours, this system is, nevertheless, necessary mania there are no accompanying psychotic symptoms. for appropriate motivations, contributes affective value Bipolar II disorder criteria are met when an individual to our mental life, and is at the heart of human vitality. has experienced one episode of hypomania and at least JANET METCALFE AND W. JAKE JACOBS one episode of major depression (American Psychiatric 2000 LeDoux, J.E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Association ). Bipolar II disorder has a prevalence Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155–84. rate of around 3% in population studies. There is Metcalfe, J. and Jacobs, W.J. (l998). Emotional memory: effects evidence that hypomania may be missed in routine of stress on ‘cool’ and ‘hot’ memory systems. Psychology of clinical practice, with some researchers arguing that Learning and Motivation, 38, 187–221. 40–50% of individuals diagnosed with unipolar depres- sion have actually also experienced diagnosable hypo- hypomania Hypomania is defined as a period of manic episodes (Hantouche et al. 1998,Ghaemiet al. elevated or irritable *mood which lasts for at least 4 2000). days and which represents a significant change from STEVEN JONES

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