DeepSummary
Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychologist and neuroscientist, argues that emotions are not reactions to external events, but predictions made by the brain based on incoming sensory signals from the body and environment. She explains that the brain constantly tries to predict what will happen next and constructs emotions accordingly, rather than simply reacting to the world.
Barrett provides examples from her own life and experiments to illustrate how the brain makes predictions about emotions. For instance, she once mistook symptoms of an illness for romantic attraction on a date. She also describes an experiment showing that people's perception of emotions depicted in photos heavily depends on the provided context.
Barrett suggests that recognizing emotions as predictions gives us more control over them. She used this idea to help her daughter manage tantrums by reframing negative moods as 'visits from the cranky fairy.' The key is realizing emotions arise from the brain's guesses about sensations, not just blindly reacting to circumstances.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Emotions are predictions made by the brain based on incoming sensory data, not just reactions to the world.
- Recognizing emotions as predictions allows more conscious control and reframing of emotional experiences.
- The brain's primary role is metabolic regulation of the body, and emotions arise from its predictions about energy demands.
- Emotion words like 'anger' refer to categories of instance, not objective physiological states.
- Context heavily influences how the brain constructs emotional predictions from sensory input.
- Personal experiences can illustrate how the brain makes emotion predictions based on situational cues.
- Treating negative emotions as temporary 'visitors' can help regulate them through conscious reframing.
- The brain continuously predicts upcoming sensations and actions, generating emotional experiences.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “It took me, probably systematically, about ten years, maybe more, to come to the conclusion that there are no indicators, objective indicators for an emotion.“ by Lisa Feldman Barrett
- “So when you feel stressed, it's because your brain has predicted that a big metabolic outlay is going to be necessary in the next moment.“ by Lisa Feldman Barrett
- “Evolution tells us very clearly that the brain's most important job is coordinating and regulating the body in the most metabolically efficient way.“ by Lisa Feldman Barrett
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Episode Information
Hidden Brain
Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam
1/8/24
Most of us feel that our emotions are reactions to those outside of us. Someone cuts us off in traffic, and we say that the other driver made us upset. A friend brings over food when we're sick, and we say the friend offered us comfort. But psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett argues that our feelings are not, in fact, responses to the world — they're really predictions about the world. And she says we can exercise more control over those predictions than we realize.
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