• Question: why do we have emotions?

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      Asked by Molly.x to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 20 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by SherlockLives.
      • Photo: Laura Finney

        Laura Finney answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        Hi Molly,
        Emotions are evolutionary and basically help you stay alive.
        For example fear is a great emotion, it makes you scared of dangerous things so you are unlikely to put yourself in danger and do those things that could make you die. This is why people are scared of heights/spiders/snakes etc.

        Happiness feels nice and so things that make you happy are usually good for you and so you are likely to do those things e.g. eating makes lots of people feel happy.

        Unfortunately some emotions aren’t so beneficial, like jealousy. I am not sure why we feel this or whether it is a relatively “modern” emotion. I’d love to hear someones views on that.

      • Photo: Robert Williams

        Robert Williams answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        Humans have evolved to take care of themselves in challenging situatuons.
        Emotions are part of who we are and how we respond to a stimulus.
        If you did not have emotions that would put you in some potentially dangerous situations and not been able to respond.
        For example some people are genetically predisposed to not be able to feel pain – they end up with broken bones or worse – for example burns – which can have life threatening consequences.

      • Photo: Ruth Patchett

        Ruth Patchett answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        Gosh thats a great question. There are a few times that it would be handy to not have emotions! But generally I think we are evolved as a species to have them are they are useful for us. Fear keeps us away from dangerous situations and therefore helps us to stay alive. Also emotions like love help us to reproduce and keep our young safe therefore helping look after the future generations. I suppose emotions like anger help us to work and protect ourselves in “flight or fight” situations. It would be very interesting to go through a lot of different emotions and try to work out how they all help us to survive!!

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