We Create our Own Emotions

Emotions are concepts

Consider your brain for a moment. It’s sitting there in your skull, receiving all sorts of data from your eyes, ears, nose, skin, and mouth. This data is informative, but also ambiguous. It has to be interpreted.

For example, it might think:

What is that rectangular source of light with changing patterns of color? A window!

1. Emotions are not hard-wired
2. Emotions are predictions
3. Although emotions are generated from within, they don’t stop there. We use emotions to construct our social reality.
4. There are no universal emotions across nations.
5. Emotions are not reactions to the world