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Will it be possible in the future to quantify emotions?
If we can measure things like force or mass, would it be feasible to do the same with emotions such as anger, happiness, sadness...?
3 Answers
- fcas80Lv 71 month ago
I think it will be possible. Perhaps such measurement will be a function of heartrate, blood pressure, eye dilation, and other measurable body functions.
- ?Lv 71 month ago
No, because the way people experience emotions is entirely subjective and is not directly linked to how people show their emotions. People who have been socially conditioned not to display their emotions still feel them just as intensely; conversely there are some societies where there is conditioning to not merely show their emotions but to make a very public display of them.
An outside observer can only quantify the strength of an emotion upon how it’s expressed by the subject.
If subjects were interviewed to research their true subjective emotional states the process of doing so would not only alter that state, but the “stiff upper lip” brigade would still understate their feelings and the “hearts on their sleeves” mob would exaggerate to gain even more attention.
