Can you tell what a stranger feels just by looking at their face? Could you distinguish fear from anger even in a person from an entirely unfamiliar culture (without having the opportunity to learn about it from experience)? Laypeople assume they can, because they believe that emotions are inborn, and they are universally imprinted on the body, both externally, on the face, and internally (I sense anxiety in the rumbling of my gut). In fact, people believe that emotions are innate precisely because they believe that emotions are “in the body.” So strong is their conviction that they will insist on their belief even when told that the emotions in question are in fact acquired. Our tendency to view “warm” feelings as embodied and innate is the exact mirror image of our tendency to view “cold” concepts as ephemeral and disembodied. A review of the scientific literature reveals that similar presumptions also plague the debate on universal emotions in affective science. Chapter 10 shows how Essentialism (a principle invoked to explain our aversion to innate ideas) also promotes the promiscuous presumption of innate emotions by laypeople and scientists alike.
Innate Ideas Revisited: For a Principle of Persistence in Infants' Physical Reasoning