#844 - Dr Laith Al-Shawaf - Why Do Humans Actually Have Emotions?

Emotions are not just irrational feelings; they have evolved to serve essential functions that help us survive and thrive. While emotions like fear and disgust may cause distress, they also play key roles in protecting us from danger and pathogens. Each emotion triggers a coordinated response in our body, influencing our physiology, psychology, and behavior to address challenges effectively. For example, fear sharpens our focus on threats, while disgust promotes avoidance of contamination. Understanding emotions as complex responses helps reconcile their usefulness with the challenges they can bring, moving beyond the perception of emotions as merely troublesome feelings. Instead, they can be seen as adaptive tools developed over time, guiding us in navigating social and environmental landscapes. Recognizing this duality is vital for appreciating the constructive role emotions can play in our lives.

Emotions play a critical role in coordinating our bodily and mental functions to help us solve problems related to our survival and relationships. They influence our attention, behavior, and decision-making, whether through feelings of fear alerting us to danger or love fostering connections. While we tend to focus on how emotions feel, especially the unpleasant ones, each emotion serves important adaptive functions, aiding our health, relationships, and social bonds. Understanding this evolutionary perspective helps us realize that even negative feelings like fear or shame have vital roles in keeping us safe or promoting our interests, including those of our loved ones. Emotions are not merely selfish tendencies but help us build connections, support our community, and ultimately enhance our survival by influencing how we interact with others and respond to the world around us.

Emotions, both positive and negative, serve important adaptive functions beyond just how we feel. They influence our behavior, attention, and memory to help us respond to various situations. Each emotion has evolved for survival rather than happiness. This means that anxiety, for example, can be overactive, but it’s designed that way to keep us safe. Emotions are not just feelings; they also involve physiological changes and behaviors that fit our environment. Although some emotions vary by culture, the underlying psychological mechanisms are universal. Our modern lives can heighten feelings of anxiety or depression because we often live differently than our ancestors did. Understanding this helps us cope with emotions better, seeing them as features of our survival system rather than malfunctions. So, while emotions can cause distress, they remain integral to how we adapt and respond to life’s challenges.

Emotions have evolved for specific functions, serving important roles for our survival and social interactions. For example, fear prepares us to escape danger, while gratitude strengthens relationships. Despite some emotions lacking universal facial expressions, each one contributes uniquely to our experiences, showcasing how our emotional responses are tailored to our evolutionary needs. Understanding these distinctions helps clarify why emotions like guilt, shame, and regret are often confused, as they serve different social and relational purposes. Guilt aims to repair bonds, whereas shame focuses on maintaining status within a group. Recognizing these nuances can improve emotional literacy and enhance interpersonal connections, highlighting the complexity of human emotions and their evolutionary significance.

Emotions like shame, guilt, pride, anxiety, and sadness serve specific functions in our lives. Shame often arises from actions that lead others to devalue us, driving us to seek improvement or repair relationships. Pride encourages us to recognize and share our accomplishments. However, modern society, with its social media influence and sedentary lifestyles, has altered our emotional landscape, leading to increased anxiety and depression. We now often compare ourselves to unattainably high standards set by others, which can diminish self-esteem. Despite these challenges, emotions still serve vital purposes, such as soliciting support from loved ones and helping us reassess our circumstances. Recognizing the functional aspects of our feelings can help us better manage them in today's complex social environment.

Happiness is often hard to maintain due to factors like the hedonic treadmill, where our joy fades after achievements, leading us to always seek more. Additionally, competition among people for status and resources can create unhappiness. Recognizing and understanding our negative emotions can help us manage them better and appreciate their evolved purpose, fostering resilience. Developing a need for cognition, which is the desire to understand complex ideas, can help individuals reconcile their emotional experiences. This awareness allows us to treat our emotions as adaptive responses rather than flaws, ultimately empowering us to navigate life's challenges more effectively and find a deeper contentment in understanding ourselves and our emotions.

Emotions have both positive and negative aspects, and it's important to recognize this complexity. While feelings like anger can lead to problems, they also serve vital functions like advocating for our needs. Instead of blindly trusting or vilifying emotions, a nuanced approach allows us to understand them better and manage their effects on our lives. Our emotions help us make decisions and navigate relationships, indicating when we need to advocate for ourselves. Understanding the roots of our feelings, especially when it comes to secondary emotions like guilt or shame, helps reduce self-criticism. Recognizing emotional responses does not imply that they are always justified; rather, they can stem from perceived social judgments. This insight can aid us in managing our feelings and reactions thoughtfully, ultimately leading to healthier emotional responses and personal growth.

Reputation and how we perceive each other in society has a major impact on our emotional well-being. In today’s digital world, reputations can shift quickly due to incomplete or incorrect information. Our feelings of acceptance are deeply rooted, as being cast out can lead to significant pain, much like in ancient societies where community mattered for survival. Emotions are integral to our social interactions, influencing everything from friendships to conflicts. Positive emotions are often overlooked but are crucial for bonding. Understanding emotions like jealousy and shame, alongside their functions, can help us navigate relationships better. In times of crisis, such as a pandemic, emotional responses like disgust can also affect desires, showcasing how closely linked our emotions are to our social behaviors and mental states.

Understanding human behavior involves recognizing that not all traits or actions are adaptations; some are side effects of our biology, known as spandrels. Emotions like anger and anxiety serve important purposes but can misfire. Acknowledging this complexity helps manage unwanted emotions without labeling them as entirely good or bad, promoting a more nuanced view of our feelings and their origins.

Emotions serve important functions in our lives, and it’s essential to understand their roles. Instead of ignoring or medicating feelings like sadness and anxiety, pause to explore their origins and implications. Some emotions guide us to make beneficial changes, while others can hinder our well-being. Recognizing this distinction can lead to healthier responses. Acknowledging our feelings without judgment allows us to manage our reactions and avoids layers of guilt or shame. Just like birds adapt to situations, understanding our emotional mechanisms can help us see when emotions misfire. Cultivating an appreciation for emotions leads to wisdom, improving our decision-making and quality of life. Embrace emotions for their lessons and learn when they guide positively or require reframing. Navigating our feelings mindfully fosters personal growth and resilience.