ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tiffany Watt Smith - Cultural historian
Tiffany Watt Smith investigates the hidden cultural forces which shape our emotions.

Why you should listen

Tiffany Watt Smith is the author of The Book of Human Emotions, which tells the stories of 154 feelings from around the world. It has been published in 9 countries so far. She is currently a Wellcome Trust research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London, and she was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and London. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, the BBC News Magazine and The New Scientist. In 2014, she was named a BBC New Generation Thinker. In her previous career, she was a theatre director.

More profile about the speaker
Tiffany Watt Smith | Speaker | TED.com
TED@Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Tiffany Watt Smith: The history of human emotions

Filmed:
3,518,597 views

The words we use to describe our emotions affect how we feel, says historian Tiffany Watt Smith, and they've often changed (sometimes very dramatically) in response to new cultural expectations and ideas. Take nostalgia, for instance: first defined in 1688 as an illness and considered deadly, today it's seen as a much less serious affliction. In this fascinating talk about the history of emotions, learn more about how the language we use to describe how we feel continues to evolve -- and pick up some new words used in different cultures to capture those fleeting feelings in words.
- Cultural historian
Tiffany Watt Smith investigates the hidden cultural forces which shape our emotions. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I would like to begin
with a little experiment.
0
856
2675
00:15
In a moment, I'm going to ask
if you would close your eyes
1
3555
3091
00:18
and see if you can work out
2
6670
1472
00:20
what emotions you're feeling right now.
3
8166
2910
00:23
Now, you're not going
to tell anyone or anything.
4
11100
2312
00:25
The idea is to see how easy
or perhaps hard you find it
5
13436
4427
00:29
to pinpoint exactly what you're feeling.
6
17887
2592
00:32
And I thought I'd give you
10 seconds to do this.
7
20503
3441
00:35
OK?
8
23968
1444
00:37
Right, let's start.
9
25436
1687
00:48
OK, that's it, time's up.
10
36150
1377
00:49
How did it go?
11
37551
1224
00:51
You were probably feeling
a little bit under pressure,
12
39113
2568
00:53
maybe suspicious
of the person next to you.
13
41705
2166
00:55
Did they definitely
have their eyes closed?
14
43895
2723
00:58
Perhaps you felt some
strange, distant worry
15
46642
3210
01:01
about that email you sent this morning
16
49876
2330
01:04
or excitement about something
you've got planned for this evening.
17
52230
3154
01:07
Maybe you felt that exhilaration
that comes when we get together
18
55408
3145
01:10
in big groups of people like this;
19
58577
1743
01:12
the Welsh called it "hwyl,"
20
60344
2168
01:14
from the word for boat sails.
21
62536
2350
01:17
Or maybe you felt all of these things.
22
65660
2654
01:20
There are some emotions
which wash the world in a single color,
23
68338
3425
01:23
like the terror felt as a car skids.
24
71787
3009
01:27
But more often, our emotions
crowd and jostle together
25
75344
2598
01:29
until it is actually quite hard
to tell them apart.
26
77966
2837
01:33
Some slide past so quickly
you'd hardly even notice them,
27
81351
3791
01:37
like the nostalgia
that will make you reach out
28
85166
2428
01:39
to grab a familiar brand
in the supermarket.
29
87618
2590
01:42
And then there are others
that we hurry away from,
30
90949
2402
01:45
fearing that they'll burst on us,
31
93375
1890
01:47
like the jealousy that causes you
to search a loved one's pockets.
32
95956
3999
01:52
And of course, there are some emotions
which are so peculiar,
33
100860
2908
01:55
you might not even know what to call them.
34
103792
2075
01:57
Perhaps sitting there, you had
a little tingle of a desire
35
105891
2879
02:00
for an emotion one eminent
French sociologist called "ilinx,"
36
108794
4318
02:05
the delirium that comes
with minor acts of chaos.
37
113136
3526
02:08
For example, if you stood up right now
and emptied the contents of your bag
38
116686
3650
02:12
all over the floor.
39
120360
1196
02:13
Perhaps you experienced one of those odd,
untranslatable emotions
40
121580
3927
02:17
for which there's no obvious
English equivalent.
41
125531
2785
02:20
You might have felt the feeling
the Dutch called "gezelligheid,"
42
128340
3285
02:23
being cozy and warm inside with friends
when it's cold and damp outside.
43
131649
4132
02:28
Maybe if you were really lucky,
44
136273
2316
02:30
you felt this:
45
138613
1194
02:32
"basorexia,"
46
140358
1347
02:33
a sudden urge to kiss someone.
47
141729
2037
02:35
(Laughter)
48
143790
2054
02:38
We live in an age
49
146799
1803
02:40
when knowledge of emotions
is an extremely important commodity,
50
148626
4184
02:45
where emotions are used
to explain many things,
51
153530
3022
02:49
exploited by our politicians,
52
157192
1917
02:51
manipulated by algorithms.
53
159133
2131
02:53
Emotional intelligence, which is the skill
of being able to recognize and name
54
161288
4850
02:58
your own emotions
and those of other people,
55
166162
2476
03:00
is considered so important, that this
is taught in our schools and businesses
56
168662
4187
03:04
and encouraged by our health services.
57
172873
2327
03:07
But despite all of this,
58
175962
1823
03:09
I sometimes wonder
59
177809
1179
03:11
if the way we think about emotions
is becoming impoverished.
60
179012
3883
03:15
Sometimes, we're not even that clear
what an emotion even is.
61
183491
4359
03:21
You've probably heard the theory
62
189509
1946
03:23
that our entire emotional lives
can be boiled down
63
191479
2584
03:26
to a handful of basic emotions.
64
194087
3234
03:29
This idea is actually
about 2,000 years old,
65
197345
2465
03:31
but in our own time,
66
199834
1164
03:33
some evolutionary psychologists
have suggested that these six emotions --
67
201022
4265
03:37
happiness, sadness, fear,
disgust, anger, surprise --
68
205311
4754
03:42
are expressed by everyone across the globe
in exactly the same way,
69
210089
3539
03:45
and therefore represent
the building blocks
70
213652
2683
03:48
of our entire emotional lives.
71
216359
2659
03:51
Well, if you look at an emotion like this,
72
219042
2167
03:53
then it looks like a simple reflex:
73
221233
2129
03:55
it's triggered by an external predicament,
74
223386
2236
03:57
it's hardwired,
75
225646
1781
03:59
it's there to protect us from harm.
76
227451
2598
04:02
So you see a bear,
your heart rate quickens,
77
230073
2464
04:04
your pupils dilate, you feel frightened,
you run very, very fast.
78
232561
4201
04:09
The problem with this picture is,
79
237878
2087
04:11
it doesn't entirely capture
what an emotion is.
80
239989
4098
04:16
Of course, the physiology
is extremely important,
81
244592
2958
04:19
but it's not the only reason
why we feel the way we do
82
247574
3151
04:22
at any given moment.
83
250749
1575
04:26
What if I was to tell you
that in the 12th century,
84
254102
2978
04:29
some troubadours didn't see yawning
85
257104
3752
04:32
as caused by tiredness
or boredom like we do today,
86
260880
3750
04:36
but thought it a symbol
of the deepest love?
87
264654
3354
04:40
Or that in that same period,
brave men -- knights --
88
268907
4239
04:45
commonly fainted out of dismay?
89
273170
3289
04:49
What if I was to tell you
90
277474
1242
04:50
that some early Christians
who lived in the desert
91
278740
2763
04:53
believed that flying demons
who mainly came out at lunchtime
92
281527
3888
04:57
could infect them with an emotion
they called "accidie,"
93
285439
4862
05:02
a kind of lethargy
that was sometimes so intense
94
290325
2594
05:04
it could even kill them?
95
292943
1489
05:07
Or that boredom,
as we know and love it today,
96
295234
4136
05:11
was first really only felt
by the Victorians,
97
299394
3027
05:14
in response to new ideas
about leisure time and self-improvement?
98
302445
5176
05:20
What if we were to think again
99
308570
1500
05:22
about those odd,
untranslatable words for emotions
100
310094
2818
05:24
and wonder whether some cultures
might feel an emotion more intensely
101
312936
4230
05:29
just because they've bothered
to name and talk about it,
102
317190
3796
05:33
like the Russian "toska,"
103
321010
2469
05:35
a feeling of maddening dissatisfaction
104
323503
2707
05:38
said to blow in from the great plains.
105
326234
2534
05:43
The most recent developments
in cognitive science show
106
331111
3965
05:47
that emotions are not simple reflexes,
107
335100
3391
05:50
but immensely complex, elastic systems
108
338515
3110
05:53
that respond both to the biologies
that we've inherited
109
341649
3148
05:56
and to the cultures that we live in now.
110
344821
2649
05:59
They are cognitive phenomena.
111
347494
2096
06:01
They're shaped not just by our bodies,
but by our thoughts,
112
349614
2949
06:04
our concepts, our language.
113
352587
2829
06:07
The neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett
has become very interested
114
355979
4430
06:12
in this dynamic relationship
between words and emotions.
115
360433
3744
06:16
She argues that when we learn
a new word for an emotion,
116
364558
3453
06:20
new feelings are sure to follow.
117
368035
2898
06:24
As a historian, I've long suspected
that as language changes,
118
372272
3980
06:28
our emotions do, too.
119
376276
1683
06:30
When we look to the past, it's easy
to see that emotions have changed,
120
378527
3899
06:34
sometimes very dramatically,
121
382450
1924
06:36
in response to new cultural expectations
and religious beliefs,
122
384398
3493
06:39
new ideas about gender, ethnicity and age,
123
387915
3126
06:43
even in response to new political
and economic ideologies.
124
391065
4271
06:48
There is a historicity to emotions
125
396106
3398
06:51
that we are only recently
starting to understand.
126
399528
3412
06:56
So I agree absolutely that it does us good
to learn new words for emotions,
127
404228
4171
07:00
but I think we need to go further.
128
408423
2396
07:02
I think to be truly
emotionally intelligent,
129
410843
2674
07:05
we need to understand
where those words have come from,
130
413541
4312
07:09
and what ideas about how
we ought to live and behave
131
417877
4178
07:14
they are smuggling along with them.
132
422079
2172
07:17
Let me tell you a story.
133
425753
1805
07:19
It begins in a garret
in the late 17th century,
134
427582
4130
07:23
in the Swiss university town of Basel.
135
431736
2526
07:26
Inside, there's a dedicated student
living some 60 miles away from home.
136
434286
5665
07:31
He stops turning up to his lectures,
137
439975
1792
07:33
and his friends come to visit
and they find him dejected and feverish,
138
441791
4720
07:38
having heart palpitations,
139
446535
1866
07:40
strange sores breaking out on his body.
140
448425
2465
07:43
Doctors are called,
141
451338
1164
07:44
and they think it's so serious
that prayers are said for him
142
452526
2879
07:47
in the local church.
143
455429
1156
07:48
And it's only when they're preparing
to return this young man home
144
456609
3205
07:51
so that he can die,
145
459838
1192
07:53
that they realize what's going on,
146
461054
1731
07:54
because once they lift him
onto the stretcher,
147
462809
2247
07:57
his breathing becomes less labored.
148
465080
1697
07:58
And by the time he's got
to the gates of his hometown,
149
466801
2795
08:01
he's almost entirely recovered.
150
469620
2124
08:04
And that's when they realize
151
472186
1413
08:05
that he's been suffering
from a very powerful form of homesickness.
152
473623
4165
08:09
It's so powerful,
that it might have killed him.
153
477812
2473
08:13
Well, in 1688, a young doctor,
Johannes Hofer,
154
481347
3268
08:16
heard of this case and others like it
155
484639
2032
08:18
and christened the illness "nostalgia."
156
486695
3107
08:22
The diagnosis quickly caught on
in medical circles around Europe.
157
490843
3480
08:26
The English actually thought
they were probably immune
158
494347
2572
08:28
because of all the travel they did
in the empire and so on.
159
496943
2835
08:31
But soon there were cases
cropping up in Britain, too.
160
499802
2548
08:34
The last person to die from nostalgia
161
502374
2868
08:37
was an American soldier fighting
during the First World War in France.
162
505266
4656
08:43
How is it possible
that you could die from nostalgia
163
511363
3569
08:46
less than a hundred years ago?
164
514956
1812
08:48
But today, not only does the word
mean something different --
165
516792
3072
08:51
a sickening for a lost time
rather than a lost place --
166
519888
3436
08:55
but homesickness itself
is seen as less serious,
167
523348
3298
08:58
sort of downgraded from something
you could die from
168
526670
2541
09:01
to something you're mainly worried
your kid might be suffering from
169
529235
3249
09:04
at a sleepover.
170
532508
1168
09:05
This change seems to have happened
in the early 20th century.
171
533700
4118
09:09
But why?
172
537842
1219
09:11
Was it the invention of telephones
or the expansion of the railways?
173
539085
4232
09:15
Was it perhaps the coming of modernity,
174
543341
2981
09:18
with its celebration of restlessness
and travel and progress
175
546346
3729
09:22
that made sickening for the familiar
176
550099
2517
09:24
seem rather unambitious?
177
552640
1596
09:27
You and I inherit that massive
transformation in values,
178
555324
5018
09:32
and it's one reason why we might not
feel homesickness today
179
560366
3257
09:35
as acutely as we used to.
180
563647
2016
09:39
It's important to understand
181
567139
2056
09:41
that these large historical changes
influence our emotions
182
569219
3536
09:44
partly because they affect
how we feel about how we feel.
183
572779
3815
09:48
Today, we celebrate happiness.
184
576991
2515
09:51
Happiness is supposed
to make us better workers
185
579988
3269
09:55
and parents and partners;
186
583281
2167
09:57
it's supposed to make us live longer.
187
585472
2476
09:59
In the 16th century,
188
587972
1825
10:01
sadness was thought to do
most of those things.
189
589821
2848
10:04
It's even possible to read
self-help books from that period
190
592693
3398
10:08
which try to encourage sadness in readers
191
596115
2573
10:10
by giving them lists of reasons
to be disappointed.
192
598712
2966
10:13
(Laughter)
193
601702
1042
10:14
These self-help authors thought
you could cultivate sadness as a skill,
194
602768
4247
10:19
since being expert in it
would make you more resilient
195
607039
3158
10:22
when something bad did happen to you,
as invariably it would.
196
610221
3482
10:26
I think we could learn from this today.
197
614195
2436
10:28
Feel sad today, and you might feel
impatient, even a little ashamed.
198
616655
5171
10:33
Feel sad in the 16th century,
and you might feel a little bit smug.
199
621850
4097
10:39
Of course, our emotions
don't just change across time,
200
627391
3271
10:42
they also change from place to place.
201
630686
2238
10:45
The Baining people of Papua New Guinea
speak of "awumbuk,"
202
633526
4579
10:50
a feeling of lethargy that descends
when a houseguest finally leaves.
203
638129
4178
10:54
(Laughter)
204
642331
1087
10:55
Now, you or I might feel relief,
205
643442
2589
10:58
but in Baining culture,
206
646055
2117
11:00
departing guests are thought
to shed a sort of heaviness
207
648196
3077
11:03
so they can travel more easily,
208
651297
1754
11:05
and this heaviness infects the air
and causes this awumbuk.
209
653075
3128
11:08
And so what they do is leave
a bowl of water out overnight
210
656227
2821
11:11
to absorb this air,
211
659072
1176
11:12
and then very early the next morning,
they wake up and have a ceremony
212
660272
3376
11:15
and throw the water away.
213
663672
1224
11:16
Now, here's a good example
214
664920
1263
11:18
of spiritual practices
and geographical realities combining
215
666207
4037
11:22
to bring a distinct emotion into life
216
670268
2454
11:24
and make it disappear again.
217
672746
1760
11:27
One of my favorite emotions
is a Japanese word, "amae."
218
675836
4633
11:33
Amae is a very common word in Japan,
219
681425
2332
11:35
but it is actually quite
hard to translate.
220
683781
2028
11:37
It means something like
the pleasure that you get
221
685833
2539
11:40
when you're able to temporarily
hand over responsibility for your life
222
688396
3994
11:44
to someone else.
223
692414
1304
11:45
(Laughter)
224
693742
1010
11:46
Now, anthropologists suggest
225
694776
1667
11:48
that one reason why this word
might have been named and celebrated
226
696467
4028
11:52
in Japan
227
700519
1188
11:53
is because of that country's
traditionally collectivist culture,
228
701731
3934
11:57
whereas the feeling of dependency
229
705689
3066
12:00
may be more fraught
amongst English speakers,
230
708779
2860
12:03
who have learned to value
self-sufficiency and individualism.
231
711663
4259
12:09
This might be a little simplistic,
232
717152
2387
12:11
but it is tantalizing.
233
719563
1754
12:13
What might our emotional languages
tell us not just about what we feel,
234
721889
5374
12:19
but about what we value most?
235
727287
2907
12:24
Most people who tell us
to pay attention to our well-being
236
732877
4104
12:29
talk of the importance
of naming our emotions.
237
737005
3709
12:32
But these names aren't neutral labels.
238
740738
3233
12:35
They are freighted with our culture's
values and expectations,
239
743995
3225
12:39
and they transmit ideas
about who we think we are.
240
747244
3326
12:43
Learning new and unusual words
for emotions will help attune us
241
751650
4072
12:47
to the more finely grained
aspects of our inner lives.
242
755746
3487
12:51
But more than this, I think these
words are worth caring about,
243
759802
3706
12:55
because they remind us
how powerful the connection is
244
763532
3343
12:58
between what we think
245
766899
1492
13:00
and how we end up feeling.
246
768415
1826
13:03
True emotional intelligence
requires that we understand
247
771156
4015
13:07
the social, the political,
the cultural forces
248
775195
4804
13:12
that have shaped what we've come
to believe about our emotions
249
780023
3533
13:15
and understand how happiness
or hatred or love or anger
250
783580
6118
13:21
might still be changing now.
251
789722
2487
13:24
Because if we want to measure our emotions
252
792698
2888
13:27
and teach them in our schools
253
795610
1943
13:29
and listen as our politicians
tell us how important they are,
254
797577
3609
13:33
then it is a good idea that we understand
255
801210
2200
13:35
where the assumptions we have about them
256
803434
1956
13:37
have come from,
257
805414
1180
13:38
and whether they still
truly speak to us now.
258
806618
3304
13:43
I want to end with an emotion I often feel
259
811478
2080
13:45
when I'm working as a historian.
260
813582
1984
13:47
It's a French word, "dépaysement."
261
815590
2461
13:50
It evokes the giddy disorientation
that you feel in an unfamiliar place.
262
818495
4809
13:55
One of my favorite parts
of being a historian
263
823328
2096
13:57
is when something
I've completely taken for granted,
264
825448
2484
13:59
some very familiar part of my life,
265
827956
2571
14:02
is suddenly made strange again.
266
830551
2084
14:05
Dépaysement is unsettling,
267
833262
2817
14:08
but it's exciting, too.
268
836103
1855
14:09
And I hope you might be having
just a little glimpse of it right now.
269
837982
3534
14:13
Thank you.
270
841540
1167
14:14
(Applause)
271
842731
2801

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tiffany Watt Smith - Cultural historian
Tiffany Watt Smith investigates the hidden cultural forces which shape our emotions.

Why you should listen

Tiffany Watt Smith is the author of The Book of Human Emotions, which tells the stories of 154 feelings from around the world. It has been published in 9 countries so far. She is currently a Wellcome Trust research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London, and she was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and London. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, the BBC News Magazine and The New Scientist. In 2014, she was named a BBC New Generation Thinker. In her previous career, she was a theatre director.

More profile about the speaker
Tiffany Watt Smith | Speaker | TED.com