Brain and Behavior

Emotions

What are the different classes of emotions?

The core emotions are generally recognized to be anger, fear, disgust, surprise, joy, and sadness. These are biologically encoded, unlearned human responses that are immediately recognizable regardless of linguistic or cultural differences. Many of these emotions, such as fear and anger, are also found in other mammals. However, the palette of human emotions is broader than these six core emotions. Self-conscious emotions—such as shame, embarrassment, pride, or guilt—are also part of the human emotional repertoire. These more complex emotions depend upon a certain degree of cognitive development and relate to one’s place in the social group.



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