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Mapping Emotions On The Body

Vasilisa

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Mapping Emotions On The Body: Love Makes Us Warm All Over
by MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
December 30, 2013
NPR.org

Excerpt:

gD2TidM.jpg

People drew maps of body locations where they feel basic emotions (top row) and more complex ones (bottom row). Hot colors show regions that people say are stimulated during the emotion. Cool colors indicate deactivated areas.
Image courtesy of Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari Hietanen.

Close your eyes and imagine the last time you fell in love. Maybe you were walking next to your sweetheart in a park or staring into each other's eyes over a latte.

Where did you feel the love? Perhaps you got butterflies in your stomach or your heart raced with excitement.

When a team of scientists in Finland asked people to map out where they felt different emotions on their bodies, they found that the results were surprisingly consistent, even across cultures.

People reported that happiness and love sparked activity across nearly the entire body, while depression had the opposite effect: It dampened feelings in the arms, legs and head. Danger and fear triggered strong sensations in the chest area, the volunteers said. And anger was one of the few emotions that activated the arms.

The scientists hope these body emoticons may one day help psychologists diagnose or treat mood disorders.

< Full Story >
 
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Z Buck McFate

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I saw this the other day, I thought it was somewhat fascinating.

It's interesting to me that envy is so similar to contempt- it looks like contempt is just a stronger feeling. Because in my mind they seem like different feelings, so it's surprising to me to see they exist in the same place (?). (Although it doesn't really surprise me that shame and contempt are similar.)
 

Lux

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I read this earlier today. I think it's interesting that thoughts, which come attached with some personal meaning and emotion, physically alter people. It reminds me of how our inner world constantly affects our physical world, and how entwined they actually are; thoughts, feelings, us, and our realities. Thanks for sharing.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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I'm very surprised that the legs aren't more activated during fear. It also is interesting that the brightest part of a lot of these is the heart, which would explain why people used to think it was the seat of emotions. Only neutrality and depression has no chest area activity.

Also notice disgust and the brightness around the stomach.. as though someone might be about to retch. Anger, meanwhile, looks like it is about to beat someone up.

Looks like interesting insight into our animal nature here.
 

Chad of the OttomanEmpire

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It actually took me forever to figure out that emotions are experienced in the body.

But I know that rage comes from my belly. It's fury that's in the chest and arms. They're different emotions.

Cool topic though. Thanks for the post.
 

OrangeAppled

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I thought this was a cool idea when I saw it (friend posted on facebook), but I was disappointed when I read how the study worked. Basically, people self-reported what they felt physically when experiencing an emotion by coloring in diagrams. I thought people's body reactions were actually being measured somehow, but nope.
 

Z Buck McFate

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^I think I remember thinking something similar when I read it, but still- I think it's interesting that people reported feeling the same thing consistently across different cultures.

eta: I'd be interested in seeing if there was any significant difference across different ages (and if that difference held consistency across different cultures).
 

Alea_iacta_est

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I've seen this featured on a particular social entertainment app.

The reason why anxiety (and somewhat fear) pools blood to the chest is actually to lessen the damage done to your body if you lose an extremity. If you are incredibly anxious/wary during a battle, and you lose an arm, then you aren't going to lose as much blood as a person who is stoic in battle or angry (since anger pools blood to the arms and core, btw most of these are blood maps), thus ensuring higher odds of survival.

EDIT: Meant Anxiety instead of fear
 

HongDou

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Look at how lit up the body is during happiness and love. That's beautiful.
 
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garbage

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I don't know if I'd be able to self-report this sort of thing. I'll have to pay attention to where I feel my surprise, I guess?
 

Z Buck McFate

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I don't know if I'd be able to self-report this sort of thing.

This occurred to me too. My memory for the actual sensations sucks. I'd have to wait until I was actually experiencing each different feeling to be able to describe it. So it made me wonder how they went about gathering the information.
 

prplchknz

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before my computer decided to be a cunt and stop loading anything having to do with the internet I was saying my emotions reside in my stomach and head which is why i throw up so much.
 

highlander

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Heat Maps That Reveal Our Emotions

This is kind of interesting.




I am wondering what kind of practical value there potentially is from this. I assume there has to be something.
 
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Okay, I find it interesting the loin warms up when feeling love, while happiness (which love could be considered a subset of) extends down into the extremities.
 

greenfairy

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I think this is a big part of empathy and psychic ability- it's not really supernatural, just highly developed intuition. Animals can sense emotion and people can sense each other's emotions, just some are more attuned to it than others. I think we get a ton of sensory data about people including electrical impulses and sensing the levels of heat in various parts of people's bodies and then unconsciously process it. People's auras are similar to this. I see people as having similar colors with these emotions; happiness is bright and yellow like sunshine, sadness is bluish and greenish and grayish, anger is reddish. I see more colors than that, and in specific areas.

You can sense people's health this way too if you are really sensitive; dark areas in an otherwise light body suggest areas of hurt and tension; if they are really dark or black that is a really bad sign. It could just be emotion associated with that area, but emotions have a physical effect on the body so there is likely a physical illness or will be if it is not cleared. The colors and feelings you get from a person are of course a lot more complex than this and may mean different things for different people. But I say intuition can tell you a lot about someone.
 

á´…eparted

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I saw this a while back and thought it was fascinating. I am not so sure of the use/application this could have, but I still think this is important research. The physical manifestation of emotions could lead to a greater understanding of the physiological effects and function of it. The fact that there are physical locations where sensation or "feeling" is increased/decreased has to have more to it, and it's definitely worth exploring. I also personally relate to these maps, and agree with the sensation increase/decrease.

I think will figure out what use this could have, when we understand the underlying principals that govern it.
 

Ghost

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So contempt means someone's not getting any? It looks cold down there.
 

Amargith

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Pride and anger are remarkably similar- safe from the hands, which makes sense. Pride tends to look more contained and less interactive on a person.

Also, this is kind of interesting :thinking:

When you 'sense' emotions from someone, it does feel like a heat wave or a kind of 'aura' of energy that they're giving off, at least to me (or the absence of that heat signature). Combined with body language it gives a pretty accurate reading once you know what to sense/look for.
 
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