• Question: Are emotions caused by instincts, chemical reactions or previous experience?

    Asked by Inquisitive Mind to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Jennifer, Tom on 12 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      All of the above! So you get that ‘gut feeling’ because of inbuilt instinct that lots of animals have. Things like happiness, anger and sadness are based on how much of certain chemicals your brain has and are also based on previous experiences. For example if you were scared by a clown when you are younger (clowns can be creepy sometimes) then that bad experience will have an effect on your emotions when you next see a clown, even if this clown isn’t creepy!

      You can however control your emotions, it can be hard at times but sometimes it’s not best to get upset or annoyed about something.

    • Photo: Jen Machin

      Jen Machin answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      I’d say all three as well. There’s an area of your brain called the amygdala that causes you to have emotions. It especially helps to recognise when there’s something scary around so that you can protect yourself 🙂 But your emotions can also be affected by other things, like stress or being very hungry. There are also chemicals in your brain that can help you feel emotions like happiness, and not having enough of these chemicals can make you feel very sad indeed. Some scientists think that chocolate can help to release these happy hormones into your brain, which is why some people like it so much! 🙂

      Even though it’s sometimes annoying. it’s normal to have lots of different emotions. Life would be very boring without them!

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