Why do we have such a hard time figuring out what we’re feeling? Alan Fiske joins Igor and Charles to unravel the mystery of emotions, revealing why your gut feeling might not be as clear-cut as you think. Drawing from his research into Kama Muta—a heartwarming rush of connection—and his critiques of how we label emotions, Alan sheds light on why most of us are pretty terrible at naming what we feel. Igor tackles the complexities of universal emotions, Alan shares why cultural differences make this even trickier, and Charles wonders if anyone truly knows what’s going on inside their head. Welcome to Episode 60.

Special Guest: Alan Fiske.

Links:

• Alan Fiske's page | UCLA
• The lexical fallacy in emotion research: Mistaking vernacular words for psychological entities - Fiske (2020)
• Ways of Knowing Emotion, and What You Don't Know about Your Own Emotions: The Case of Kama Muta - Fiske (2020)
• Seeking Communal Emotions in Social Practices That Culturally Evolved to Evoke Emotions: Worship, Kitten Videos, Memorials, Narratives of Love, and More - Fiske, Schubert, Seibt (2024)
• Moral psychology is relationship regulation: moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality - Rai & Fiske (2011)
• The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations - Fiske (1992)
• Kama Muta Lab | Research on social emotions