Research Round #2: How do emotions influence our behavior ?

In my last round of research , I talked about how our emotions are activated. In this post I’m going to discuss about how emotions influence or behavior. In  my opinion there are two types of people ; the rational and emotional . Most people think that being rational is the complete opposite of being emotional and that being logical means ignoring the illogical influences of our emotion (1).  First of all, we have two sides of our brain; the left side and the right side (2). The right-brained persons are better at keeping  relationships with others as well as being more empathetic and tend to make decisions based more on emotions than logic (2). They are also on the creative side .The left-brained persons tend to be the direct opposite as they tend to be less empathetic and rather very good at achieving goals(2). Most right-brained people focus on talking while left-brained people focus more on action(2) .  Creative persons tend to think about people’s words and how they felt in that situation while logical persons tend to break down what they are told and focus on the end results instead (2).

Though a lot of people believe in right and left brained persons , its not true the way we think of it(4). If there was such a thing most would have been left-brained because the left cerebral  hemisphere controls the right side of our brain and most of the world’s population uses their right hand(4). Our language skills are also controlled by the left side of brain even including those 78% of people who are not right-handed(4). Most people have almost have the same set of skills but where our language is controlled is just a bit different(4). Even the ability for left-brained persons to interpret complex curves and equations is a specialty of the right brain. This myth came from a study done to split brain patient who underwent surgery to treat their epilepsy(4). They cut the the nerve  fibers connecting the two hemispheres (corpus callosum) and could easily notice the specialties of each cerebral hemisphere is easily known(4). The right hemisphere cannot speak but it can say yes or no to answer a question and while we believe we are one self, the two hemispheres hold independent and sometimes opposite beliefs(4) .This doesn’t justify the pop psychology though. We also use don’t use only 10% of our brain(4).

Emotions tell us what we want and what we  don’t  want and we can’t make decisions without knowing our own goals(1) . For example If I want to make someone happy and I know they like a certain band  then I would buy them a concert ticket because I know what they like .People who are intelligent don’t ignore their emotions but rather pay a lot of attention to them and use that information well when making decisions (1).Chronically ignoring our emotions can lead to physical health problems like increased blood pressure (1).Its always advised to express our emotions . Our emotions are expressed verbally through words or non-verbally through facial expression  and body movements (3).We are able to express our emotions when we are interacting with others and others can judge our facial expressions (3) .

It can be used to judge the quality of our friendships and relationships (3). Since facial expressions are  recognized universally , they not only  show our psychological state but also our intentions together with our next actions (3) . People who  show angry expressions are likely to express violence . It is also true that another person’s emotions is likely to evoke a complimentary feelings in us , like if someone is fearful we also start experiencing it so we behave in a similar way (3).We learn rules early  in our lives that teach us how to modify our emotions according to social circumstances , for example Asian kids are taught to mask their emotions especially negative emotions like anger so they might end up behaving a certain way (3).Even though emotions have a solid control in our lives we are still the people who can decide whether to act on them or not. In my opinion we are all equal, whether some or not some of us show their emotions more often than not.

1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-neuroscience-emotion-and-decisionmaking/202208/do-emotions-help-or-hinder-rational-thinking
2. https://www.millennial-revolution.com/build/dont-get-science-logic-emotion/
3. https://openpress.usask.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/functions-of-emotions/#:~:text=Because%20emotions%20prepare%20our%20bodies,in%20our%20accomplishments%20and%20achievements.
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKlkwJypzJQ