How Bodies Show Emotion, Comparing Anti-Poverty Plans, The Hazards Of Financial Optimism

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• New Study Shows Universal Way Emotions Are Felt

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  Many people might turn red with shame or feel the pit of one’s stomach drop with fear — and it turns out people all over the world might react to those emotions in the same way.

  A new study of people from three different countries — Finland, Sweden and Taiwan — took stock of human response to various emotions. Study participants were given two blank body outlines and were told to color in where they were feeling increased activity and decreased activity in their bodies while viewing emotionally-loaded images and videos. The study tested 13 emotions and had one body outline to represent a neutral emotional state. The outlines were put together in a composite and were used to conclude that people react to emotions in similar ways.

  “Across three different cultures, three very different landguages, (scientists) found that there were universal responses to emotions,” said science writer Gemma Tarlach.

  Tarlach covered this story for Discover magazine, which includes the body images on its website. The outlines look almost like thermal photography, with bright yellows and oranges representing increased areas of activity and blues and purples to stand for decreased areas of activity.

  According to these outlines, happiness is the only emotion felt throughout the body, anxiety is centered in the chest and fear is felt mostly in the chest and in the pit of the stomach.

  “You look at all 14 images … and depression really stands out because the entire body is this cold, sort of barren blue and purple. I felt bad just looking at it!” Tarlach said.

  The writer said the study controled for certain language idioms associated with emotions, such as “red with shame” or getting “cold feet” in English. Even with these controls and studying emotions across three different languages — Finnish, Swedish and Chinese — scientists said they saw the universal response.

  So, this information is cool, but how is it useful? Tarlach said many times people don’t quite know how to articulate themselves to their doctors. Especially in patients with mood disorders or anxiety problems, these maps could help doctors pinpoint emotional states that need medical attention.

  “It could be a biomarker that’s maybe more relatable for the patient to express how they’re feeling and for the health practitioner to say, ‘OK, I think I know what emotional state this person may be in and whether we have to look into whether there’s a mood disorder behind this,’” Tarlach said.

• How Our Bodies Show Our Emotions

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  Emotions don’t just live in our brain–they change our pulse, our posture, and our perspiration. A science writer tells us how the human body is an atlas of our emotions.

• Comparing Anti-Poverty Plans

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  President Obama unveiled his Promise Zone Initiative today, using place-specific plans to battle poverty in areas hit especially hard by the recession. Republican Senator Marco Rubio also announced a new plan to fight poverty. An expert explains these two plans and gives historical context.

• Financial Optimism Up In 2014–But There's A Downside

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  Many Americans are feeling optimistic about their finances going into the new year. An expert on credit counseling says that’s good news–as long as people don’t get over-confident and build up too much debt.