1. Sociology of Emotions
Dr. John Bradford

2. Facial Expressions
• Facial Expressions are the most important
means of nonverbal communication.
• Emotions are communicated via facial
expressions.

3. Facial Expressions and Evolution
Why do we have facial expressions?
1. Facial expressions are vestiges
(throwbacks or remnants) of
once useful physiological
reactions.
– Examples: “fear face” enhances
perception; “disgust face”
decreases perception

4. Facial Expressions and Evolution
Why do we have facial
expressions?
2. Facial expressions have
survival value b/c they
communicate to others our
emotional states.
– We can more easily detect
anger in men; and happiness
in women.

5. Facial Expressions and Evolution
• Charles Darwin's The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
argues that we have to understand
emotional expressions in other species to
understand emotional expression in
humans.
• Principle of Antithesis: holds that once a
state of mind is accompanied by an
associated habit, a contrary state of mind
tends to evoke an opposite habit,
performed involuntarily.
– Example: dog posture. Anger and Fear are
opposite emotions; moving forward versus
retreating.

6. Emotions, Feelings, and Moods
Emotions Feelings
PUBLIC- actions PRIVATE- not
and revealed in facial
movements, often expressions or
in public view behavior
Emotions Moods
SHORT-TERM: LONG-TERM:
Acute; immediate; Emotions or
tied to a particular Feelings of long
situation duration (habitual)

7. The Primary Emotions
Can you name these emotions?

8. The Primary Emotions
Can you name these emotions?

9. Primary Emotions
• Research suggests that these 6 emotions are
universal, i.e. can be encoded (expressed) and
decoded (understood) by people across all
cultures:
Anger, Happiness, Surprise, Fear, Disgust, Sadness
• Other emotions that might be universally
recognized include: contempt, pride, and
shame.

10. Emotional Expression
• Many emotions are universal (all
humans possess them), but
different cultures have different
display rules:
• Display rules = culturally
determined rules about which
nonverbal behaviors are
appropriate to display

11. Cultural Differences in
Nonverbal Communication
1. Eye Contact and Gaze:
– In Nigeria, Puerto
Rico, and
Thailand, children are
taught to avoid eye
contact with superiors
– In the Middle East, Arabs
often use a lot of eye
contact

12. Cultural Differences in
Nonverbal Communication
2. Personal Space and
touching:
• High-contact cultures:
stand close to one another
and touch frequently;
Middle East, South
America, Southern Europe
• Low-contact cultures
include: North America,
Asian, Pakistani and some
Native American peoples

13. Cultural Differences in
Nonverbal Communication
3. Hand Gestures:
– “OK” Sign: In Japan = ‘money’; in Mexico
=‘sex’; in Brazil = the middle finger
– Thumbs-up: Japan = ‘boyfriend’; Iran =
obscene
– Hand-purse gesture: no meaning in the
US; but in Italy means ‘What are you trying
to say?’; in Tunisia it means ‘slow down’; in
Malta means ‘you may seem good, but you
are really bad.’
– Nodding head: in some parts of Africa and
India, up and down mean ‘NO’ and side to
side means ‘YES’; in Korea, side to side
means ‘I don’t know’

14. Attributions
• Internal Attribution: inference that a person
is behaving in a certain way because of
something about the person’s character or
personality
• External attribution: inference that a person
is behaving in a certain way because of that
person’s situation or environment…

15. Attributions
• We tend to base our attributions on three types
of information:
1. Consensus info: extent to which other people
respond in the same way to same stimulus
2. Distinctiveness info: extent to which one
particular person acts in the same way to
different stimuli
3. Consistency info: extent to which same actor
responds in the same way to the same stimulus
across time and circumstances

16. Misattributed Lust on a Swinging
Bridge
• HYPOTHESIS: Strong
emotions are relabeled
as sexual attraction
whenever an acceptable
object of that attraction
is present and the
emotional producing
circumstances do not
require the full attention Capilano Suspension Bridge
of the individual.

17. Differential Theory of Emotions
Differential Theory of Emotions asserts that
complex emotions are built up from primary
emotions. Secondary emotions consist of 2
primary emotions. Tertiary emotions consist
of 3 primary emotions. There are a total of
92 possible emotions.
Four pairs of opposite primary emotions:
1. Acceptance and Disgust
2. Joy and Sadness
3. Anger and Fear
4. Anticipation and Surprise

18. Theories of Emotions
• Plutchik defines emotions as “adaptive reactions to
basic life problems”.
– He lists 4 basic problems of life:
Life Problem Emotions
1. identity- Membership in social groups Acceptance and Rejection
2. temporality- sexual reproduction, family, Happiness and Distress
kinship
3. hierarchy- vertical dimension of power, Anger and Fear
prestige, authority, influence, rank
4. Territoriality Anticipation (exploration) and
Surprise (orientation)

19. Acceptance and Disgust
• Acceptance means ‘taking in’ (e.g. another
person, stray dog, or object); acceptance of and
acceptance by others. Both involve our sense of identity.
– Functionally, acceptance is incorporation. Infants desire to
incorporate (not destroy or devour) with their mouths;
– Lack of love and nurturance can result in pathologies such
as acquisitiveness, the desire to incorporate through
consuming, or emptying others.
• Disgust means rejection;
– a specific reaction to the waste products of the human
body, an apprehension of death and decay
– Nausea is the physiological symptom of disgust
– Spitting is the universal symbol of disgust
– Disgust works according to the law of sympathetic magic,
or 'law of contamination‘: a disgusting object makes other
objects in close proximity disgusting!

20. Joy and Sadness
• Joy is a foreground, acute emotion;
happiness, a background baseline
sentiment.
• Happy people are: less self-focused, less
hostile and abusive, less vulnerable to
disease, more loving, trusting, forgiving,
creative, energetic, decisive, helpful, and
sociable.
• The Opposite of happiness is NOT
unhappiness, but misery and loneliness
(31).
• Sadness, Grief, Loneliness: separation or
loss of attachment to a source of joy, loss
of security, loss of excitement.

21. Anger and Fear
• Anger
– Anger "is usually an immediate,
spontaneous response to the
perception of unjustifed harm or pain
to the self or to one's family
members, friends, or acquaintances"
(41)
• Concerns depreciation of worth and
status in a group
– Anger is not present at birth.
• Anger appears during first 5-6 months in
order to remove obstacles and
obstructions
• Associated with direct manipulation of
objects.

22. Anger and Fear
• Anger
– Behavior = moving towards an
object; anger can be a potential
component of rational decision
making.
– Dominant persons don’t necessarily Terror and agony
display anger; usually those who are
insecure display anger; but can also
be an appropriate defense against
the assertions of power by other
people.

23. Anticipation and Surprise
• Anticipation = interest, exploration. An
orientation towards the future; expectation.
• Surprise: Surprise is an orienting response;
an adaptive behavior geared towards rapidly
identifying the cause of something.
– Levels of intensity: sudden attention 
astonishment  stupified amazement
– Secondary emotions:
• happy surprise = delight
• unhappy surprise = disappointment
• angry surprise = aggression
• accepting surprise = curiosity

24. Secondary Emotions
• 8 primary dyads:
– Love = acceptance & joy
– Misery, loneliness = disgust & sadness
– Pride = anger & joy
– Embarrassment = fear & sadness
– Aggression = anger & anticipation
– Alarm, awe = fear & surprise
– Curiosity = surprise & acceptance
– Cynicism = anticipation & disgust

25. Love
(a secondary emotion)
• "Love is the joyful acceptance of another"
(52); Love = acceptance and joy.
• Falling in Love entails the creation of a
new community, a collective social
movement.
– Love is a revolutionary force, subverts
previous ties; extinguishes alienation
– Similar to Durkheim's notion of 'collective
effervescence‘.
– Love generates mental experience of
eternalization of the present (54)
– Requires an obstacle

26. Tertiary Emotions
(This list is not exhaustive!)
• Jealousy = surprise + fear + sadness
• Envy = surprise + anger + sadness
• Ambition = anticipation + anger + joy
• Confidence = anticipation + acceptance +
anger
• Hope = anticipation + joy + sadness