The Five Continents of Emotion
May 9, 2016 10:10 AM   Subscribe

The Atlas of Emotions. "This atlas was inspired by a series of conversations between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman about the science of emotions. With the help of Stamen Design and Paul’s daughter, Dr. Eve Ekman, this tool was created to be a visual journey through the world of emotions."
posted by lazuli (27 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Cool toy, but it seems pretty theoretically dubious to me. It's suspicious that Ekman has begun whittling down his list of basic emotions to include only the ones featured in Inside Out.
posted by painquale at 11:05 AM on May 9, 2016 [4 favorites]


My partner actually forwarded this to me today because we're in the same field and it's relevent to our work. It looks interesting and I'm looking forward to having a good play with it. I find this kind of thing really helpful for some people I work with who have no idea how to discuss or name emotions, which is also why I think Inside Out is such a good thing. Kids growing up fluent in the language of emotions is so much better than trying to learn it as adults.
posted by billiebee at 11:11 AM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's suspicious that Ekman has begun whittling down his list of basic emotions to include only the ones featured in Inside Out.

not_sure_if_serious.gif
posted by GuyZero at 11:18 AM on May 9, 2016




I felt some Anger and Disgust viewing this site in Safari. Some text was disappearing. Chrome increased the level of Enjoyment.

However I remain angry and disgusted that they altered the shapes of of the various charts (under States) to try and visually match the represented emotion. Bad infographic design! Bad!
posted by Kabanos at 11:59 AM on May 9, 2016


seems kind of needlessly complicated
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:00 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


One last Pixar derail: This list of Partially Charted Emotions listed in the Annex would be a good cast of characters for Inside Out 2. All the uncharted emotions that live outside the control room, but battle to get in and take control of Riley! It would be consistent with the onset of puberty suggested at the end of the first movie.
posted by Kabanos at 12:06 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


I like it. Wondering where humiliation would fit.
posted by Lyme Drop at 12:41 PM on May 9, 2016


I find useful a distinction that my (semi-Buddhist) teacher makes. Feelings are what we actually experience at the time--and it's helpful if you can feel it bodily. Emotion is the story we attach to the feeling. (We tend to use the terms interchangeably.)
posted by kozad at 12:58 PM on May 9, 2016 [8 favorites]


not_sure_if_serious.gif

srsly.gif. In the 70's, Ekman listed six basic emotions: the ones in Inside Out and Surprise. The writers of Inside Out expunged Surprise because they thought it played too similar a narrative role to Fear. And now, Surprise is suddenly gone from Ekman's presentation.

Also, the makers of Inside Out were inspired by Ekman's original list of six, but that list of six is not Ekman's more recent or considered view. He added Contempt soon afterward, and then started adding even more basic emotions. He was last up to fifteen, I believe. The only reason to go back down to five is because that number was a historical accident that caught the public imagination after a massively successful popularization.

Ekman's basic emotion theory was significant in context, but it's no longer current or cutting edge. It's always a little annoying to see it so heavily touted as the be-all and end-all of the affective sciences in a Malcom Gladwell kind of way. Teaming up with the Dalai Lama and scaling back from his most recent stock of basic emotions to those depicted in a kids' movie is pretty brazen, I think.
posted by painquale at 2:31 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


I just noticed that list of partially charted emotions:

Half or less than half of emotion scientists believe there is convincing evidence that each of the following is an emotion.

Less than half? I can't believe that. I work at a center for research into the affective sciences. I doubt there are many people here who think that envy or guilt is not an emotion, if anyone at all thinks that.
posted by painquale at 2:43 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


I see now what you're saying. I thought before you meant Ekman was copying the movie, which I found odd because they took the setup from his work. But yes, this does seem to gloss over the way Ekman's work has changed over time.
posted by GuyZero at 2:45 PM on May 9, 2016


That interface left me stranded in the land of anger. A bunch of throbbing balls labelled with emotions, and when I scroll over them a menu appears off to the right, and when I scroll over to the menu it immediately goes away.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:21 PM on May 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


(Oh, jeez, I'll do it myself...)

Metafilter: A bunch of throbbing balls labelled with emotions.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:22 PM on May 9, 2016 [9 favorites]


I think the thing that makes me sad is that I skipped straight to the "Calm" module and there was nothing really for me to interact with besides a description. Not even some tips for how to achieve calm?
posted by yueliang at 4:36 PM on May 9, 2016


The writers of Inside Out expunged Surprise because they thought it played too similar a narrative role to Fear

When I worked with autistic kids teaching them basic emotional cues, that was usually the reason I tossed that emotion card aside and/or didn't even bother trying to affect it myself. Surprise is so transitory and people can be surprised in a number of ways where the outcome is different each time; it can be exceedingly tough to teach visually.
I came to the conclusion that 'expression' is useful in describing some things where 'emotion' and 'feeling' don't really apply.
posted by P.o.B. at 5:27 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


I find useful a distinction that my (semi-Buddhist) teacher makes. Feelings are what we actually experience at the time--and it's helpful if you can feel it bodily. Emotion is the story we attach to the feeling. (We tend to use the terms interchangeably.)

I love the idea of that being a distinction. I'm not sure I've seen those words used to make that distinction before; I tend to talk about feelings vs. feelings-about-feelings, or emotions vs. stories.

And I totally see that this site may not be academically rigorous. I was thinking about it in relation to my clients, like billiebee said. I handed out a something like this, basically a sheet with emoticons, in a group therapy session and clients found it unexpectedly illuminating. I think many people can't even identify whatever they're feeling as some shade of five (or six!) of the major emotions. I could see this site being helpful for them, or people who work with them.
posted by lazuli at 6:10 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: A bunch of throbbing balls labelled with emotions.
posted by Kabanos at 7:34 PM on May 9, 2016


Well, of course, surprise and fear. But what about a ruthless devotion to the Pope?
posted by storybored at 8:19 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


That would be fear. Fear and surprise. And ruthless efficiency. Fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Fear, surprise... oh I'll come in again.
posted by chimaera at 8:46 PM on May 9, 2016 [4 favorites]


Surprise admittedly is not considered an emotion by all emotion theorists because it doesn't seem to be valenced. There are good surprises and bad surprises.
posted by painquale at 1:54 AM on May 10, 2016


You know you play too many fantasy rpgs when you want to convert this "atlas" into a fantasy map.
posted by Phersu at 3:10 AM on May 10, 2016


What would verklempt fall under?
posted by Kabanos at 6:28 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


It is so weird to me that half of scientists don't believe love or jealousy is an emotion but there are 20 different levels of disgust that really just seem like synonyms to me?
posted by Brain Sturgeon at 10:40 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


He added Contempt soon afterward, and then started adding even more basic emotions. He was last up to fifteen, I believe

Hard Feelings: Science’s Struggle to Define Emotions (The Atlantic, Feb 24, 2015) notes "Ekman himself has now scaled up to 21."

As for Inside Out, from The Science of 'Inside Out' on The Paul Ekman Group's website states "One of us suggested that the film include the full array of emotions now studied in science, but Mr. Docter rejected this idea for the simple reason that the story could handle only five or six characters."

With that, here's Telegraph - In Pictures: Scientists map 21 facial expressions and emotions (deslided) and 21 emotions for which there are no English words, part of a dynamic infographic with a lot of different emotions all mapped out, from Pop. Sci..
posted by filthy light thief at 9:47 AM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


21 emotions for which there are no English words

I especially love the Five Emotions Invented By The Internet cited in that link. In particular this: "The sense of fatigue and disconnect one experiences after emitting a massive stream of content only to hit some kind of ‘wall’ and forget and/or abandon the entire thing." — which accurately describes so much of my Metafilter activity.
posted by Kabanos at 8:03 AM on May 13, 2016


Previous post on disgust.
posted by homunculus at 4:36 PM on May 15, 2016


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