Book

How Emotions Are Made

: The Secret Life of the Brain

by Lisa Feldman Barrett, Prof. Lisa Feldman Barrett Ph.D

“Fascinating . . . A thought-provoking journey into emotion science.” — Wall Street Journal “A singular book, remarkable for the freshness of its ideas and the boldness and clarity with which they are presented.” — Scientific Am

(5 total)

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Lisa Feldman Barrett (5)

“Social reality is not just about words—it gets under your skin. If you perceive the same baked good as a decadent 'cupcake' or a healthful 'muffin,' research suggests that your body metabolizes it differently. Likewise, the words and concepts of your culture help to shape your brain wiring and your…”

— Lisa Feldman Barrett, amazon.com

Tagged: How To Think, emotions, how emotions are made, metabolizing

“An emotion is your brain’s creation of what your bodily sensations mean, in relation to what is going on around you in the world.”

— Lisa Feldman Barrett, amazon.com

Tagged: How To Think, emotions, how emotions are made, Brain

“Simulations are your brain’s guesses of what’s happening in the world. In every waking moment, you’re faced with ambiguous, noisy information from your eyes, ears, nose, and other sensory organs. Your brain uses your past experiences to construct a hypothesis—the simulation—and compares it to the ca…”

— Lisa Feldman Barrett, amazon.com

Tagged: emotions, How To Think, cues, how emotions are made

“The word 'smile' doesn’t even exist in Latin or Ancient Greek. Smiling was an invention of the Middle Ages, and broad, toothy-mouthed smiles (with crinkling at the eyes, named the Duchenne smile by Ekman) became popular only in the eighteenth century as dentistry became more accessible and affordabl…”

— Lisa Feldman Barrett, amazon.com

Tagged: emotions, How To Think, Smile, Social Cues

“Numerous experiments showed that people feel depressed when they fail to live up to their own ideals, but when they fall short of a standard set by others, they feel anxious.”

— Lisa Feldman Barrett, amazon.com

Tagged: emotions, How To Think, Anxiety, Depression