Self Comes to Mind

our emotional expressions. We all know how public displays of laughter or crying are different across cultures and how they are shaped, even within membership in specific social classes. Emotional expressions resemble one another but are not equal. They can be modulated and made distinctly personal or suggestive of a social group.
    The expression of emotions can doubtless be modulated voluntarily. But the degree of modulatory control of the emotions evidently cannot go beyond the external manifestations. Given that emotions include many other responses, several of which are internal and invisible to the naked eyes of others, the bulk of the emotional program is still executed, no matter how much willpower we apply to inhibit it. Most important, feelings of emotion, which result from the perception of the concert of emotional changes, still take place even when external emotional expressions are partially inhibited. Emotion and feeling have two faces, in keeping with their very different physiological mechanisms. When you encounter a stoic individual who stiffens his upper lip as tragic news arrives, do not surmise that he is not feeling anguish or fear. An old Portuguese adage captures this wisdom: “He who sees a face never gets to see the heart.” 10
Up and Down the Emotional Range
     
    Besides the universal emotions, two commonly identified groups of emotion deserve special mention. Years ago I called attention to one of these groups and gave it a name: background emotions. Examples include enthusiasm and discouragement , two emotions that can be prompted by a variety of factual circumstances in one’s life but also brought on by internal states such as disease and fatigue. Even more than with other emotions, the emotionally competent stimulus of background emotions may operate covertly, triggering an emotion without one’s being aware of its presence. Reflection on a situation that has already happened, or consideration of a situation that is a mere possibility, can trigger such emotions. The resulting background feelings are just a small step up from primordial feelings. Background emotions are close relatives of moods but differ from them in their more circumscribed temporal profile and in the sharper identification of the stimulus.
    The other major group of emotions is the social emotions. The label is a bit odd, since all emotions can be social and often are so, but the label is justifiable given the unequivocal social setting of these particular phenomena. Examples of the main social emotions easily justify the label: compassion, embarrassment, shame, guilt, contempt, jealousy, envy, pride, admiration . These emotions are indeed triggered in social situations, and they certainly play prominent roles in the life of social groups. The physiological operation of the social emotions is in no way different from that of other emotions. They require an emotionally competent stimulus; they depend on specific triggering sites; they are constituted by elaborate action programs that involve the body; and they are perceived by the subject in the form of feelings. But there are some noteworthy differences. Most social emotions are of recent evolutionary vintage, and some may be exclusively human. This seems to be the case with admiration and with the variety of compassion that focuses on the mental and social pain of others rather than on physical pain. Many species, primates and the great apes in particular, exhibit forerunners of some social emotions. Compassion for physical predicaments, embarrassment, envy, and pride are good examples. Capuchin monkeys certainly appear to react to perceived injustices. Social emotions incorporate a number of moral principles and form a natural grounding for ethical systems. 11
An Aside on Admiration and Compassion
     
    The acts and objects we admire define the quality of a culture, as do our reactions to those who are responsible for those acts and objects. Without proper rewards, the admirable behaviors are less likely to be emulated. Likewise for compassion. Predicaments of every sort abound in daily life, and unless individuals behave compassionately toward those who face them, the prospects of a healthy society are greatly diminished. Compassion has to be rewarded if it is to be emulated.
    What goes on in the brain when we feel admiration or compassion? Do the brain processes that correspond to such emotions and feelings resemble in any way those that we have identified for