Social psychology

Chapter 6 examines the effect of emotions on social relationships and moral judgments as well as the

concept of happiness. These topics will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

First, emotions have a fundamental influence on our social affinities and the way we communicate with

others. They help us form and maintain relationships, in many different ways. Among the latter, recent

studies of Hartenstein & al. (2006) showed that as the brain processes a social tactile contact; an emotional

connection shows up early. Thus, touch (the right kind) develops closeness in friendships and romantic

relationships because it is pleasing to the senses: it provokes excitement of specific cells that activate the

orbitofrontal cortex that is relevant in representation of rewards (Rolls, 2000). This entire experience is

however affected by the social evaluation of the person touching you. Touch has also the capacity to soothe

because it reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol (Francis and Meaney, 1999). For instance, regarding

attachments between babies and parents, the presence of skin-to-skin contact is essential, because it helps

calm children and it provides emotional support to them. Actually, through touch we communicate positive

emotions such as love, gratitude and compassion (Hartenstein, 2006) but also negative ones such as anger (for

example; slapping someone). Furthermore, another study suggested that emotional intelligence – the ability

to understand and manage efficiently our emotions and those around us- is favourable to relationships and

helps achieve a healthy social life (Salovey and Mayer, 1990). Finally, emotions do indeed regulate social

interactions; the emotional expressions affect the touchee or the observer behavior by triggering reactions in

them.

Second, we might think that people only rely on their reason to make important decisions and judgments.

However, Jonathan Haidt (2001) considers that moral judgments are more driven by our emotions and that

two systems are engaged in making decisions. First, when someone is in a moral dilemma and has to judge, he

is naturally oriented to the instinctive response most people in his situation or environment would give. The

person surely knows if it is moral or not, but he can’t explain the reason of this response. After this primary

emotional processing, people will try to give more concrete and reasonable explanation to justify theirdecision, by making assessments of cons and pros, considerations of prevailing social norms, etc. In spite of

that, this process turns out to be a failure because the person can hardly find arguments strong and «smart»

enough to prove his response. In other words, reasoning is more likely to be reflecting social motives rather

than abstract and private principles. Therefore, moral judgments are guided by emotions rather than reason.

Some example situations of this phenomenon described by Haidt activate moral intuitions such as criminal

behaviours and incest. The reaction triggered by incest; for instance, give rise to negative emotions like disgust

and serve as guide to judgments. Most people would judge incest as a morally wrong action. Otherwise stated,

how we feel about something often determines what we think about it.

Third, happiness is universal and is characterized by pleasant emotions, even though there are great cultural

variations