Lisa Feldman Barrett: You Aren't at the Mercy of Your Emotions - Your Brain Creates Them (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript and summary of Lisa Feldman Barrett’s Talk: You Aren’t at the Mercy of Your Emotions – Your Brain Creates Them at TED conference.

TRANSCRIPT:

My research lab sits about a mile from where several bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon in 2013. The surviving bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Chechnya, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

Now, when a jury has to make the decision between life in prison and the death penalty, they base their decision largely on whether or not the defendant feels remorseful for his actions. Tsarnaev spoke words of apology, but when jurors looked at his face, all they saw was a stone-faced stare.

Now, Tsarnaev is guilty, there’s no doubt about that. He murdered and maimed innocent people, and I’m not here to debate that. My heart goes out to all the people who suffered.

But as a scientist, I have to tell you that jurors do not and cannot detect remorse or any other emotion in anybody ever. Neither can I, and neither can you, and that’s because emotions are not what we think they are. They are not universally expressed and recognized. They are not hardwired brain reactions that are uncontrollable. We have misunderstood the nature of emotion for a very long time, and understanding what emotions really are has important consequences for all of us.

Lisa Feldman Barrett: You Aren’t at the Mercy of Your Emotions – Your Brain Creates Them (Transcript)