Research
Many phenomena, ranging from individual cognitive processing to social and collective behavior, cannot be understood without taking into account affective determinants.
Moreover, affective phenomena are complex episodes in human behavior and experience, thoroughly integrated into a social and cultural context, that require study from different research perspectives.
The different scientific projects of the Center aim to provide a better understanding of affective phenomena (e.g., emotions, motivations, moods, stress, well-being) from various research perspectives and multiple levels of analysis. With its scientists stemming from various backgrounds such as psychology, philosophy, economics, political science, psychiatry, neuroscience, education, sociology, literature, history, and religious and social anthropology, the Center places a particular emphasis on the interdisciplinary and integrative collaboration between these different domains of research.
What are Emotions ?
Emotions are brief adaptive responses to events that are important to us. During an emotional episode, the brain rapidly evaluates the information available and prepares the body to react. An emotion is frequently accompanied by expressive signals, such as facial or vocal expressions, and it is the combination of these physiological and psychological changes that we subjectively perceive and call a feeling.
People may react to the same event in very different ways as a result of their personal evaluation: Is this something I knew was coming? Is it good for me? Can I cope with it? Our brain and mind continuously answer questions like these, most of the time in an effortless, automatic fashion.
As they allow us to evaluate our inner and surrounding worlds, emotions reflect our identity and values, grounding the choices we make and the way we behave.
Publications
Please find our fifty recent publications. For other publications click here.