We're now on the way to better understanding the diversity of human emotions around the world thanks to a new study from a global team including Otago University researcher Joseph Watts.
Photo: Tyler Nix / Unsplash
For thousands of years, people have debated whether the same fix or six basic human emotions are shared by everyone around the world, he tells Jesse Mulligan.
It turns out culture makes things a lot more complicated than that.
Dr Joseph Watts from University of Otago Photo: Supplied
To explore what emotion words mean in different languages, the researchers first put together a database of more than 100,000 words in nearly 2,500 languages – roughly a third of the world's languages.
They used a method of word-mapping called colexification to better understand the core ideas underlying the words,
Doing so, the researchers discovered many emotion words that are specific to – and to some extent shaped by – the culture from which they emerged.
In a commentary that accompanies the study cognitive scientist Asifa Majid writes about awumbuk – a listless feeling experienced by the Baining people in Papua New Guinea when guests depart after an overnight stay.
The study's findings suggest that when it comes to feelings, translation dictionaries don't really work, Joseph Watts says.
To fully comprehend the nature of an emotion described in another language, we need to understand that language.
Joseph Watts recently received a Marsden Fast-Start grant to study cross-cultural variation in mental state vocabulary in the Pacific.
