The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior

Our daily lives and interactions with others are shaped by a wide range of feelings. It can feel like these feelings are in control of us at times. The feelings we're having at any particular time have a role in shaping our decisions, our behaviour, and our worldview.

Psychologists have also made efforts to categorise the range of human emotions. Several ideas have developed to classify and offer explanations for the wide range of human emotions.

Basic Emotions

In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman proposed that humans around the world had a core set of six emotions. He named six feelings: joy, sorrow, disgust, fear, shock, and rage. Later, he added things like pride, humiliation, embarrassment, and excitement to his list of primary feelings.

Combining Emotions

The "wheel of emotions" proposed by psychologist Robert Plutchik was based on the analogy between the colour wheel and human emotion. Similar to how multiple hues can be achieved by combining different colours, the same is true for emotions.

The most fundamental feelings, according to this notion, function as a kind of foundation. Emotions that are more nuanced and complicated are combinations of the simpler ones. Love, for instance, is created by combining simpler feelings like happiness and trust.

According to research published in 2017, there may be many more "core emotions" than was previously thought.1The study's findings were published in PNAS, and they broke down feelings into 27 distinct groups.

However, the study's authors observed that the spectrum of these feelings is not well demarcated but rather continuous.1Let's take a look at the many kinds of emotions and how they affect people's actions.

Happiness

Happiness, more than any other feeling, is what most people aim for in life. Contentment, joy, delight, satisfaction, and a general sense of well-being are all common descriptors of happiness.

Numerous academic fields, notably positive psychology in psychology, have conducted extensive studies on happiness since the 1960s. Expressions of this kind of feeling include:

Expressions on the face, like a smile

Communicating with Your Body Language:

Positive, encouraging tone of speech

Despite its status as a foundational human feeling, our cultural backgrounds strongly shape our assumptions about what will bring us joy. For instance, popular culture often suggests that a person needs to acquire material possessions like a house and a high-paying profession in order to be happy.

What genuinely makes people happy is usually more nuanced and unique to each person.2Happiness has long been thought to contribute to both physical and mental wellbeing, and recent studies have corroborated this anecdotal evidence.

Numerous studies have found a correlation between being happy and positive outcomes including living longer and having happier marriages.3On the flip side, studies have linked dissatisfaction to a number of negative health effects.

Lowered immunity, higher inflammation, and shorter lifespans are just some of the negative health outcomes associated with stress, anxiety, despair, and isolation.4

Sadness

Disappointment, despair, hopelessness, apathy, and a generally downcast disposition are all hallmarks of sadness, another sort of emotion. 

Sadness, like all other emotions, is something that everyone feels from time to time. Prolonged, intense bouts of sadness have been linked to the development of depression. There are several ways to convey your sadness, such as:

• 1. Crying
• 2. Dampened mood
• 3. Lethargy
• 4. Quietness
• 5. Withdrawal from others

Different people experience different kinds and degrees of sadness, and they respond to those feelings in different ways.

Avoiding social situations, turning to drugs or alcohol, and dwelling on one's problems are all common responses to feelings of sadness. Such actions can have the opposite effect and make one's melancholy last even longer.

Fear

Fear is a strong emotion, and it can serve a vital survival function. The fight or flight response occurs when an individual perceives an imminent threat and experiences terror.

Your body responds to perceived threat by tightening up, your heart rate and breathing rate increasing, and your thinking becoming more alert.5

This action ensures that you are well-equipped to deal with potential dangers in your surroundings. Examples of such expressions of emotion are:

Expressions made with the face, such as raising the eyebrows and lowering the chin

Signs of trying to go out of sight or get away from a dangerous situation

Reactions in the body, such as increased breathing rate and heart rate

Of course, people's reactions to terror might vary widely. Some individuals may be more easily frightened than others, and some people may also react more strongly to specific stimuli.

When we see an urgent danger, we react with fear. When we anticipate risks or even just think about prospective dangers, we might create a similar response; this is what most of us call anxiety. Fear of approaching social situations is a hallmark of social anxiety.

However, there are those who actively seek out terrifying experiences. Some people appear to thrive and even love the fear that comes with participating in extreme sports and other forms of thrill-seeking.

Familiarity and acclimatisation, the result of repeated exposure to a scary object or circumstance, can lessen anxiety and fear.6

Exposure treatment is based on this principle; patients are gradually exposed to their feared stimuli in a safe and controlled environment. Over time, one's level of anxiety begins to decline.

Disgust

One of Eckman's initial six basic emotions is disgust. There are many methods to express disgust.

Disgust is communicated through body language by averting gaze.

Body-related responses: like throwing up or retching

Expressions on the face: frowning, puckering the lips, etc.

This aversion can result from being exposed to an unpleasant flavour, odour, or visual. Scientists theorise that this feeling arose as a protective mechanism against potentially deadly meals. It's common for people to feel repulsed by spoiled food, for example.

Disgust can also be triggered by uncleanliness, disease, blood, decay, or the presence of the dead. The body may react in this way to protect itself from potential sources of infection.7

When people see others participating in actions they deem repulsive, immoral, or evil, they may sense moral revulsion.

Anger

Anger is a strong emotion characterised by irritation, irritation, frustration, and hatred towards other people. Anger can trigger the same physical reaction in the body as fear.

Anger is a natural response to danger, and when you feel threatened, you may want to take aggressive measures to keep yourself safe. Expressions of anger include:

Expressions on the face, such irritation or anger.

Signalling using the body, such as making a bold gesture or withdrawing eye contact

Vocal inflections, such as a harsh or shouting tone

Changes in the body's physiology, such as profuse sweating or flushing

Aggression: when someone hits, kicks, or throws anything.

Anger is generally seen as a negative emotion, yet there are situations when it actually serves a positive purpose. It can be helpful in defining what you want from a relationship and in spurring you to take action towards resolving issues.

However, anger can become problematic when it is extreme or when it is communicated in ways that are detrimental to oneself or others. Aggression, abuse, and violence are among outcomes that can result from anger that is not managed.

The effects of this feeling might be both mental and bodily. Keeping your anger under control is important for your mental and physical well-being.8

Heart disease and diabetes are two conditions that have been related to anger. Aggressive driving, alcohol use, and tobacco use are all associated to it as well, all of which are known to have negative effects on one's health.

Surprise

Eckman identified six distinct human emotions, one of which is surprise. A physiological startle response follows an unexpected event, making surprise a fleeting emotion.

The intensity of this feeling might range from good to negative to neutral. As you walk to your car late at night, for instance, you might be startled by someone who suddenly appears from behind a tree.

A pleasant surprise would be coming home on your birthday to find that all of your friends have come to help you celebrate. Characteristics of surprise include:

Lifting the brow, enlarging the eyes, and smiling are all examples of facial expressions.

Reactions in the body, such as recoiling

Expressions of emotion through speech: shouting, gasping, etc.

Another emotion that might set off the "fight or flight" mechanism is surprise. When frightened, the body may release adrenaline to ready itself for either a fight or a flight response.9

Human behaviour can be significantly altered by the element of surprise. For instance, studies have shown that people pay extra attention to unexpected occurrences.

That's why it's easier to recall news stories about odd or shocking situations than those that are more typical. People are more likely to be persuaded by novel arguments and to retain new knowledge when presented with novel material, according to studies.

Other Types of Emotions

There are many different sorts of emotions that humans are capable of experiencing, and the six fundamental emotions outlined by Eckman are only a small sample. According to Eckman, these fundamental feelings are shared by people of all backgrounds and civilizations.

But alternative hypotheses and new research keep probing the wide range of emotions and their classification. Unlike his original six emotions, which Eckman believed could be communicated solely through facial expressions, he later added a variety of more emotions to his list. He eventually came up with a list of feelings that included:

• 1. Amusement
• 2. Contempt
• 3. Contentment
• 4. Embarrassment
• 5. Excitement
• 6. Guilt
• 7. Pride in achievement
• 8. Relief
• 9. Satisfaction
• 10. Shame

Other Theories of Emotion

Emotion classification and the nature of the basic emotions have been the subject of debate among psychological thinkers. Although Eckman's theory is well-known, other theorists have also put forth suggestions concerning what feelings are fundamental to human experience.10

Some academics have proposed, for instance, that just two or three emotions are truly fundamental. Some have argued that we can classify our feelings into a hierarchy. Secondary emotions can be further subdivided from primary emotions like love, joy, surprise, rage, and sadness. For instance, love is made up of tertiary feelings like adoration and yearning.

It's possible to further categorise these feelings as "tertiary emotions" if necessary. Tertiary emotions like liking, caring, compassion, and tenderness are all subsets of the secondary emotion of affection.

Recent research reveals there are at least 27 unique emotions, which are all intricately related to one another.11 Researchers produced an interactive map to show the connections between these feelings after analysing the reactions of over 800 men to over 2,000 video clips.

Senior researcher and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Centre Dacher Keltner noted that "we found that 27 distinct dimensions, not six," were essential to account for the way hundreds of people consistently reported feeling in response to each movie.

That is to say, feelings are not discrete states. The research instead implies that there are emotional gradients and that different emotions are intricately connected to one another.

The study's lead author, Alan Cowen, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, argues that better clarifying the nature of our emotions can help scientists, psychologists, and doctors understand the biological and psychological bases of human behaviour and mental health. He expects that by learning more about these diseases, researchers may be able to create more effective therapies for mental illness.