Forms and Functions of the Social Emotions

Abstract

In engineering, form follows function. It is therefore difficult to understand an engineered object if one does not examine it in light of its function. Just as understanding the structure of a lock requires understanding the desire to secure valuables, understanding structures engineered by natural selection, including emotion systems, requires hypotheses about adaptive function. Social emotions reliably solved adaptive problems of human sociality. A central function of these emotions appears to be the recalibration of social evaluations in the minds of self and others. For example, the anger system functions to incentivize another individual to value your welfare more highly when you deem the current valuation insufficient; gratitude functions to consolidate a cooperative relationship with another individual when there are indications that the other values your welfare; shame functions to minimize the spread of discrediting information about yourself and the threat of being devalued by others; and pride functions to capitalize on opportunities to become more highly valued by others. Using the lens of social valuation, researchers are now mapping these and other social emotions at a rapid pace, finding striking regularities across industrial and small-scale societies and throughout history.

The evolution of shame and its display

“…Over the millennia, those individuals who better attracted goodwill and avoided the indifference, censure and wrath of potential aid-givers would have more frequently survived and reproduced. This information threat theory of shame therefore posits that shame is an adaptation that evolved to defend against information-triggered devaluation (Landers, Sznycer & Al Shawaf, 2022; Sznycer, 2010; Sznycer et al, 2016; Sznycer, Sell, & Lieberman, 2021; Sznycer, Cosmides, & Tooby, 2017; Robertson et al, 2018; see also Gilbert, 1997; Fessler, 1999; Weisfeld & Dillon, 2012; Baumeister & Tice, 1990; Schlenker & Leary, 1982). According to this account, the shame system is an adaptation designed to coordinate psychology, physiology and behaviour to: (a) inhibit actions likely to yield more costs from social devaluation than the benefits said actions would yield; (b) limit the spread of potentially discrediting information about the self; (c) minimise the degree and scope of any social devaluation that does occur; and, if devaluation occurs, (d) motivate actions geared toward mitigating its costs.…”

Research on the Driving Factors of Collective Nostalgia and the Impact of Collective Nostalgia on National Brand Consciousness

“…Social emotion can promote social interaction and social norms and is closely related to group decision-making. Sznycer et al [ 58 ] point out that social emotion which runs through the whole process of social activities is a reflection of public needs and public experience and affects individual attitudes and behaviors. Like basic emotions, social emotion can be positive as well as negative.…”

Can Emotion Regulation Affect Aggressive Responses? A Study on the Ukrainian–Russian Conflict in a Non-Directly Exposed Sample

“…Moreover, disgust seems to be implicated in dehumanisation [22] and, through a further re-evaluation of the events, a perceived need for the elimination of the outgroup or event [21]. Shame can lead to positive behaviours to repair behaviours experienced as unacceptable, or it may have a destructive impact on social relationships by escalating into forms of violence [23][24][25]. This can occur when shame is perceived as stemming from the actions of others ("others made me feel ashamed") or from thoughts of powerlessness, when violence is perceived as the only available response ("I had no other choice") and when the emotional abilities to recognise emotion and inhibit violent impulses are lacking [25][26][27][28].…”