Psychology People express far more than six categories of emotions

More categories of emotional reactions detectable than previously thought
So far, experts have assumed that people can experience the following six emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. Researchers have now discovered that there are actually 27 separate categories of human emotions.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found in their study that humans can seem to perceive 27 different categories of emotions. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS).

For a long time researchers assumed that humans can only feel six different emotions. A recent study has found that there are actually 27 different categories of emotions in humans. (Image: iko / fotolia.com)

Participants saw different emotional video clips
For their study, the researchers used novel statistical models to analyze the responses of more than 800 men and women to more than 2,000 emotional video clips. The physicians identified 27 different categories of emotions and created a multidimensional, interactive map. This shows how the emotions are interconnected. Twenty-seven different categories of emotions were needed to describe the feelings and reactions to the videos, not just six, as previously thought, explains author Professor Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley.

Findings could lead to improved psychiatric treatment
Contrary to the idea that every emotional state stands alone, the study found that all emotions are interconnected. Emotional experiences are much more extensive and nuanced than previously thought, explains author Dr. Alan Cowen. "Our hope now is that the findings will help other scientists and physicians understand the emotional states underlying moods, brain activity, and expressive signals," the expert continues. This could, according to Dr. Cowen lead to improved psychiatric treatment.

853 participants watched a selection of 2,185 emotional video clips
For the study, a demographically diverse group of 853 men and women looked online for a random sample of 5 to 10 second videos that produced a wide range of emotions. The topics from the 2,185 video clips collected from various online sources for the study included, for example, births and babies, weddings, death and suffering, spiders and snakes, physical falls, sexual acts and natural disasters.

Subjects were divided into three groups
Three separate groups of study participants observed the sequences of videos and then reported on their emotions. The first group reported their emotional reactions to 30 different video clips. The responses reflected a rich and nuanced set of emotional states, Dr. Cowen added.

Subjects rated the occurrence of feelings triggered by the videos
The second group of subjects rated in the videos how different their feelings were. These included, for example, admiration, esteem, pleasure, anger, fear, awe, boredom, rest, confusion, contempt, desire, disappointment, disgust, empathic pain, envy, excitement, fear, guilt, terror, interest, joy, nostalgia, Pride, romance, sadness, contentment, sexual desire, surprise, sympathy and triumph.

Scientists identify a total of 27 different categories of emotions
The physicians noticed that more than half of the participants showed the same category of emotions for each video. The third group rated their emotional responses to each video on a scale of 1 to 9. The researchers were able to predict how the participants would rate the videos, depending on the emotions experienced by the previous participants. Overall, the results showed that study participants typically have the same or similar emotional responses to each video. By analyzing a wealth of data, the scientists were able, according to their own information, to identify 27 different categories of emotions. (As)