This is a quick summary of some recent research from Lisa Feldman Barrett on emotions. According to Barrett, there aren't distinct emotions (like anger, sadness or happiness). Rather, what we have is "a survival system that evaluates our surroundings to create a unique emotional landscape." According to the article, "The thing you call anger isn't a distinctly programmed thing, but it's a concise information point, and it gets updated by each new experience." It's a primitive prediction system. "The seeming irrationality of a well-tuned emotional system, within the right context, can fill in gaps that reason misses."
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