Visual exploration through emotional granularity

We often talk about emotions in more basic terms, such as disgust, joy, sadness, and anger, but of course it goes deeper than that. When talking to others, it helps to have the words to express these more complex feelings. Abby VanMuijen and Michelle McGhee, for The Pudding, take you on a tour of what it means to feel.

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Wheel of emotional words, in case you’re having trouble finding the words these days

You’re probably feeling a range of emotions these days. It helps if you can express them. This emotional word wheel by Geoffrey Roberts might help:

I work with people who have limited emotional vocabulary and as a result the intensity of their negative emotions and experiences is heightened because they can’t describe their feelings (especially their negative feelings). That’s why this list is heavily focused on negative emotions/ experiences. Being able to clearly identify how we are feeling has been shown to reduce this intensity of experience because it re-engages our rational mind.

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Simulation of fan emotions during a basketball game

During a game, the range of emotions can vary widely across a crowd. Will Hipson, making use of some emotion dynamics, simulated how that range can change through a game:

What I’m striving to simulate are the laws of emotion dynamics (Kuppens & Verduyn, 2017). Emotions change from moment to moment, but there’s also some stability from one moment to the next. Apart from when a basket is scored, most fans cluster around a particular state (this is called an attractor state). Any change is attributable to random fluctuations (e.g., one fan spills some of their beer, maybe another fan sees an amusing picture of a cat on their phone). When a basket is scored, this causes a temporary fluctuation away from the attractor state, after which people resort back to their attractor.

I want to simulate emotion dynamics for all the things now.

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Most popular GIFs used to express emotion in different countries

People often use animated GIFs to digitally express caricatures of emotion or reaction. So when you look at the most distinct ones of various countries associated with specific emotions, you get sort of a caricature for each region. Amanda Hess and Quoctrung Bui for The Upshot looked.

I wonder what the GIFs look like for people who are less likely to display emotion. Does the straight face cross over to GIF usage, or is there a dichotomy of real-life and digital self? I must know.

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Complement data with emotion for full effect

Data is a great vehicle for arguments, but the (not just visual) perception can change completely depending how a reader feels. Cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot talks facts and emotions on Hidden Brain.

The example at the end is interesting. Tell a person a joke when they’re sad, and they probably won’t think the joke is funny. Make the person happy first, and it’s more likely they’ll see the joke from your point of view. How does this transfer to the communication of data? [via Kim Rees]

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When she cried

Crying

For most, crying isn’t an especially common occurrence over a long period of time, but when it happens, it’s often because something significant occurs in one’s life. Over the course of a couple of years, Robin Weis has 394 such occurrences. She knows this because she tracked when she cried and then later classified each event.

Breakups and relationships were the root of 63% of the total cries. The data spanned the majority of a year-long, long-distance relationship, the entirety of a breakup, a little bit of dating, and the very beginning of another relationship. The breakup was a terrible mess during which I found out that my ex was actually married, and the lies and trauma caused 40% of my total crying.

Related: Weis’ dating chart of 8 years. [via Vox]

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Atlas of Emotions, a collaboration with the Dalai Lama

Atlas of emotion

Emotions are complex and only partially understood, yet such a force in how we live our lives. The Atlas of Emotions, produced by Stamen Design, shows what we know about these things, based on research and conversations between the Dalai Lama and psychologists Paul and Eve Ekman.

Using a geographic metaphor, the interactive starts with five universal emotions or “continents”: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and Enjoyment. From there, you can see what states each puts you in and what actions come about.

But do I really have to say anything more than Dalai Lama? What.

See the project here and find more background on the atlas here.

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Combining Inside Out emotions for new ones

Inside Out Emotion Combos

Spoiler alert for Inside Out. At the climax of the movie, we see that emotions can combine for deeper, more complex feelings, and it's these combinations that get Riley through a tough time. Christophe Haubursin for Vox provides the matrix of emotions if you combine each.

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