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T H E NAT U R E O F E M OT I O N
ii

SERIES IN AFFECTIVE SCIENCE

Series Editors
Richard J. Davidson
Paul Ekman
Klaus Scherer

The Evolution of Emotional Communication Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human


Eckart Altenmüller, Sabine Schmidt, and and Animal Emotions
Elke Zimmnermann (eds.) Jaak Panskepp
The Neuropsychology of Emotion Nonverbal Behaviour in Clinical Settings
Joan C. Borod Pierre Philippot, Robert S. Feldman, and
Erik J. Coats (eds.)
Persons, Situation, and Emotions: An Ecological Approach
Herman Brandstätter and Andrzej Eliasz Emotion in Memory and Development:
Biological, Cognitive, and Social Considerations
Handbook of Emotion Elicitation and Assessment
Jodi Quas and Robyn Fivush (eds).
James A. Coan and John J.B. Ellen (eds.)
Memory and Emotion
Anxiety, Depression, and Emotion
Daniel Reisberg and Paula Hertel (eds.)
Richard J. Davidson
Emotion Explained
What the Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of
Edmund T. Rolls
Spontaneous Expression Using the Facial Action Coding
System (FACS), Second Edition Emotion, Social Relationships, and Health
Paul Ekman and Erika L. Rosenberg (eds.) Carol D. Ryff and Burton Singer (eds.)
The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions Oxford Companion to Emotion and the Affective
Paul Ekman and Richard J. Davidson Sciences
David Sander and Klaus Scherer
The Psychology of Gratitude
Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough (eds.) A Blueprint for Affective Computing: A Sourcebook
and Manual
Who Needs Emotions? The Brain Meets the Robot
Klaus R. Scherer, Tanja Bänzinger, and Etienne Roesch
Jean-​Marc Fellous and Michael A. Arbib (eds.)
Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory,
Emotions in Psychopathology: Theory and Research
Methods, Research
William F. Flack and James D. Laird (eds.)
K. Scherer, A. Schorr, and T. Johnstone (eds.)
Shame: Interpersonal Behaviour, Psychopathology,
Bodily Sensibility: Intelligent Action
and Culture
Jay Schulkin
Paul Gilbert and Bernice Andrews (eds.)
Boo! Culture, Experience, and the Startle Reflex
Pleasures of the Brain
Ronald C. Simons
Martin L. Kringelbach and Kent C. Berridge
Thinking and Feeling: Contemporary Philosophers
Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935
on Emotions
Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence
Robert C. Solomon
N.N. Ladygina-​Kohts (deceased) and
Frans B.M. de Waal (eds.), Boris Vekker (translator) Collective Emotions
Christian von Scheve and Mikko Salmela (eds.)
Feelings: The Perception of Self
James D. Laird Expectancy and Emotion
Maria Miceli and Christiano Castelfranchi
Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotions
Richard D. Lane and Lynn Nadel (eds.) The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions,
Second Edition
The Development of Social Engagement:
Andrew S. Fox, Regina C. Lapate, Alexander J.
Neurobiological Perspectives
Shackman, and Richard J. Davidson
Peter J. Marshall and Nathan A. Fox (eds.)
Science of Emotional Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns
Gerald Matthews, Moshe Zeidner, and
Richard D. Roberts (eds.)
iii

SECOND EDITION

T H E NAT U R E O F E M OT I O N

Fundamental Questions

EDITED BY

A N D R E W S . F OX
R E G I NA C. L A PAT E
A L E X A N D E R J. S H AC K M A N
and
R I C H A R D J. DAV I D S O N

3
iv

1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


Names: Fox, Andrew S., editor.
Title: The nature of emotion : fundamental questions / [edited by] Andrew S. Fox [and three others].
Description: Second edition. | New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017045789 | ISBN 9780190612573 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Emotions.
Classification: LCC BF531.N38 2018 | DDC 152.4—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045789

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada


v

For Paul Ekman, who pioneered our understanding of the nature of


emotion, and for Jerry Kagan, who reminded us to question what we
thought we understood.
vi
vi

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiii 1.7 Active inference and emotion 28


Editor Contributions xv Karl J. Friston, Mateus Joffily,
Contributors xvii Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Anil K. Seth
Introduction xxiii 1.8 Emotions are constructed with
Alexander J. Shackman, interoception and concepts within a
Andrew S. Fox, Regina C. Lapate, predicting brain 33
and Richard J. Davidson Lisa Feldman Barrett
Preface to Paul Ekman’s Essay xxv 1.9 Afterword 38
Richard J. Davidson Regina C. Lapate and
How emotions might work xxvii Alexander J. Shackman
Paul Ekman
QUESTION 2: How are emotions,
QUESTION 1: What is an emotion? 1 mood, and temperament related? 45

1.1 Emotions and feelings: William 2.1 Distinguishing affective


James then and now 1 constructs: Structure, trait-​vs.
state-​ness, and responses to affect 45
Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio
Kristin Naragon-​Gainey
1.2 Emotions are functional states that
cause feelings and behavior 6 2.2 Inhibited temperament and intrinsic
versus extrinsic influences on fear circuits 49
Ralph Adolphs
Jennifer Urbano Blackford and
1.3 What is emotion? A natural science David H. Zald
perspective 11
2.3 Feelings, moods and temperaments 51
Peter J. Lang and Margaret M. Bradley
Jerome Kagan
1.4 Affect is essential to emotion 14
2.4 Distinctions between temperament
Kent C. Berridge
and emotion: Examining reactivity,
1.5 Emotions: Causes and consequences 15 regulation, and social understanding 54
Gerald L. Clore Lindsay C. Bowman and Nathan A. Fox
1.6 What are emotional states, and what 2.5 Afterword 58
are their functions? 19 Alexander J. Shackman,
Edmund T. Rolls Regina C. Lapate, and Andrew S. Fox
vi

viii Contents

QUESTION 3: What are the dimensions QUESTION 5: How are emotions


and bases for lasting individual organized in the brain? 93
differences in emotion? 61
5.1 Discrete and dimensional contributions
3.1 Personality as lasting individual to emotion arise from multiple brain circuits 93
differences in emotions 61 Ralph Adolphs
Rebecca L. Shiner
5.2 Brain limbic systems as flexible
3.2 The bases for preservation of generators of emotion 96
emotional biases 64 Kent C. Berridge
Jerome Kagan
5.3 At primal levels, vast subcortical
3.3 The psychological and neurobiological brain networks mediate instinc-
bases of dispositional negativity 67 tual emotional reactions that help
Alexander J. Shackman, program higher-​order emotional-​
Melissa D. Stockbridge, cognitive abilities in higher regions
Edward P. Lemay, Jr., and of the brain and mind 99
Andrew S. Fox Jaak Panksepp
3.4 Reactivity, recovery, regulation: The 5.4 Brain architecture and principles of
three R’s of emotional responding 71 the organization of emotion in the brain 104
Richard J. Davidson Luiz Pessoa
3.5 Afterword 73 5.5 Variation and degeneracy in the
Alexander J. Shackman and brain basis of emotion 108
Andrew S. Fox Lisa Feldman Barrett
5.6 How are emotions organized in the
brain? 112
QUESTION 4: What is the added value
of studying the brain for understanding Tor D. Wager, Anjali Krishnan, and
emotion? 77 Emma Hitchcock

4.1 Studying the brain is necessary for 5.7 The brain is organized to emote 118
understanding emotion 77 Andrew S. Fox
Tom Johnstone 5.8 Neural circuit mechanisms for
4.2 Brain and emotion research: switching emotional tracks: From
Contributions of patient and positive to negative and back again 122
activation studies 80 Kay M. Tye
Robert W. Levenson 5.9 Afterword 125
4.3 Understanding emotion by Alexander J. Shackman and
unraveling complex structure–​ Andrew S. Fox
function mappings 84
Luiz Pessoa
QUESTION 6: When and in what ways
4.4 Brain studies can advance are emotions adaptive and maladaptive? 129
psychological understanding 88
6.1 The ambiguous issue of adaptive
Kent C. Berridge emotions 129
4.5 Afterword 91 Jerome Kagan
Alexander J. Shackman and
Regina C. Lapate
ix

Contents ix

6.2 Maladaptive emotions are inseparable 7.7 Fighting fire with fire: Endogenous
from inaccurate appraisals 130 emotion generation as a means of
Phoebe C. Ellsworth emotion regulation 172
Haakon G. Engen and Tania Singer
6.3 Emotions aren’t maladaptive 132
Aaron S. Heller 7.8 Afterword 177
Alexander J. Shackman and
6.4 Cultural neuroscience of emotion 136
Regina C. Lapate
Joan Y. Chiao
6.5 Positive emotions broaden and
build: Consideration for how and
QUESTION 8: How do emotion and
when pleasant subjective experiences cognition interact? 181
are adaptive and maladaptive 140 8.1 The interplay of emotion and cognition 181
Barbara L. Fredrickson Hadas Okon-​Singer, Daniel M. Stout,
6.6 The social nature of emotions: Melissa D. Stockbridge,
Context matters 143 Matthias Gamer, Andrew S. Fox, and
Alexander J. Shackman
Amy Lehrner and Rachel Yehuda
8.2 The impact of affect depends on its
6.7 Afterword 147
object 186
Andrew S. Fox and Regina C. Lapate
Gerald L. Clore
8.3 Thoughts on cognition–​emotion
QUESTION 7: How are emotions interactions and their role in the
regulated by context and cognition? 151 diagnosis and treatment of
psychopathology 189
7.1 Emotion as an evolutionary adaptive
pattern: The roles of context and cognition 151 Keren Maoz and Yair Bar-​Haim
D. Caroline Blanchard and 8.4 Beyond cognition and emotion:
Brandon L. Pearson Dispensing with a cherished
psychological narrative 192
7.2 Individual differences in fear
conditioning and extinction Alexandra Touroutoglou and
paradigms: Insights for emotion Lisa Feldman Barrett
regulation 154 8.5 Can we advance our understanding of
Marie-​France Marin and emotional behavior by reconceptualizing
Mohammed R. Milad it as involving valuation? 196

7.3 The role of context and cognition in Roshan Cools, Hanneke den Ouden,
the placebo effect 158 Verena Ly, and Quentin Huys
Lauren Y. Atlas 8.6 Beyond the threat bias: Reciprocal
links between emotion and cognition 199
7.4 Emotional intensity: It’s the thought
that counts 162 Nick Berggren and Nazanin Derakshan
Gerald L. Clore and David A. Reinhard 8.7 The cognitive-​emotional brain 202

7.5 Emotion regulation as a change of Luiz Pessoa


goals and priorities 165 8.8 Emotional vs. rational systems, and
Carien M. van Reekum and decisions between them 206
Tom Johnstone Edmund T. Rolls
7.6 Searching for implicit emotion 8.9 Afterword 209
regulation 169
Alexander J. Shackman and
Matthew D. Lieberman Regina C. Lapate
x

x Contents

QUESTION 9: How are emotions 10.5 Movement and manipulation: The


embodied in the social world? 213 how and why of emotion
communication 257
9.1 Connections between emotions and
Lasana T. Harris
the social world: Numerous and
complex 213 10.6 Concepts are key to the
Nancy Eisenberg and “communication” of emotion 261
Maciel M. Hernández Maria Gendron and
Lisa Feldman Barrett
9.2 Effects of emotion on interpersonal
behavior: A motivational perspective 217 10.7 The web of emotion understanding
Edward P. Lemay, Jr. in human infants 264
Betty M. Repacholi and
9.3 Emotion in the social world 222
Andrew N. Meltzoff
Carolyn Parkinson
10.8 The dynamic-​interactive model
9.4 The affective nature of social interactions 225 approach to the perception of facial
Dominic S. Fareri and emotion 268
Mauricio R. Delgado Jonathan B. Freeman
9.5 On the significance of implicit 10.9 Afterword 274
emotional communication 230
Regina C. Lapate and Andrew S. Fox
Andrew S. Fox
9.6 Deconstructing social emotions:
Empathy and compassion and their QUESTION 11: How are emotions
relationship to prosocial behavior 233 physically embodied? 277
Haakon G. Engen and Tania Singer 11.1 How and why emotions are
embodied 277
9.7 Afterword 237
Adrienne Wood, Jared Martin, and
Andrew S. Fox and Alexander J.
Paula Niedenthal
Shackman
11.2 Emotion in body and brain: Context-​
dependent action and reaction 280
QUESTION 10: How and why are Margaret M. Bradley and
emotions communicated? 241 Peter J. Lang
10.1 Form of facial expression communi- 11.3 The importance of the mind for
cation originates in sensory function 241 understanding how emotions are
Daniel H. Lee and Adam K. Anderson embodied 283
10.2 Expression of emotion: New princi- Naomi I. Eisenberger
ples for future inquiry 246 11.4 How are emotions physically embodied? 287
Dacher Keltner, Daniel T. Cordaro, Rosalind W. Picard
Jessica Tracy, and Disa Sauter
11.5 Pain as an embodied emotion 291
10.3 The (more or less accurate) commu-
Tim V. Salomons
nication of emotions serves social
problem solving 250 11.6 How are emotions organized and
Ursula Hess physically embodied? 299
Bruce S. McEwen
10.4 Making sense of the senses in emo-
tion communication 253 11.7 The complex tapestry of emotion:
Wen Li, Lucas R. Novak, and Yuqi You Immune and microbial contributions 302
Melissa A. Rosenkranz
xi

Contents xi

11.8 Afterword 307 13.6 Emotions can bias decision-​making


Andrew S. Fox and Alexander J. Shackman processes by promoting specific
behavioral tendencies 355
Jan B. Engelmann and Todd A. Hare
QUESTION 12: What is the role of
13.7 Emotions are important for advanta-
conscious awareness in emotion? 311
geous decision-​making: A neuropsy-
12.1 Emotions are more than their chological perspective 359
subjective feelings 311 Justin Reber and Daniel Tranel
Kent C. Berridge
13.8 From emotion to motion: Making
12.2 Reactive emotional processing in the choices based on current states and
absence of conscious awareness 312 biological needs 365
Joshua M. Carlson Elisabeth A. Murray
12.3 What is the role of unconscious 13.9 Afterword 370
emotions and of conscious awareness Andrew S. Fox and Regina C. Lapate
in emotion? 316
Beatrice de Gelder and Marco Tamietto
QUESTION 14: What develops in
12.4 Self-​regulating our emotional states emotional development? 373
when we are conscious of them and
when we are not 322 14.1 The recognition of emotion during
Leanne Williams the first years of life 373
Julia Cataldo and Charles A. Nelson
12.5 Regulatory benefits of conscious
awareness: Insights from the emo- 14.2 Everything develops during emo-
tion misattribution paradigm and a tional development 376
role for lateral prefrontal cortex 326 Hill H. Goldsmith
Regina C. Lapate
14.3 Stability and change in emotion-​
12.6 Afterword 330 relevant personality traits in
Regina C. Lapate and Andrew S. Fox childhood and adolescence 379
Rebecca L. Shiner

QUESTION 13: How are emotions inte- 14.4 Normative trajectories and sources
of psychopathology risk in adolescence 382
grated into choice? 335
Leah H. Somerville and
13.1 How can affect influence choice? 335 Katie A. McLaughlin
Brian Knutson and Mirre Stallen
14.5 What happens in emotional develop-
13.2 Emotions through the lens of ment? Adolescent emotionality 386
economic theory 338 Eveline A. Crone and Jennifer H. Pfeifer
Agnieszka Tymula and Paul Glimcher
14.6 Goals change with age and benefit
13.3 Emotions as computational signals of emotional experience 392
goal error 343 Candice Hogan, Tamara Sims, and
Luke J. Chang and Eshin Jolly Laura L. Carstensen
13.4 Affect is the foundation of value 348 14.7 Ideal ends in emotional development 396
Catherine Hartley and Carol D. Ryff
Peter Sokol-​Hessner
14.8 Afterword 399
13.5 Emotion, value, and choice 352 Regina C. Lapate and
Jolie Wormwood and Alexander J. Shackman
Lisa Feldman Barrett
xi

xii Contents

Epilogue: ​The nature of emotion 403 Notes 419

A research agenda for the Twenty-First References 423


century 403 Index 571
Andrew S. Fox, Regina C. Lapate,
Richard J. Davidson, and
Alexander J. Shackman
xi

AC K N OW L E D G M E N T S

We thank Paul Ekman for his support, advice, and San Francisco, and the University of Wisconsin–​
contributions to both editions of The Nature of Madison as part of the National Institute of Mental
Emotion. Health–​supported Training Program in Emotion
We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable as- Research (T32-​ MH018931) and the Wisconsin
sistance of Allegra Anderson, Andy DeClercq, Symposium on Emotion (co-​Directed by Richard
Kathryn DeYoung, Laura Friedman, Samiha Islam, Davidson and Ned Kalin).
Susan Jensen, Gloria Kim, Jason Smith, Melissa Andrew Fox’s work is supported by the
Stockbridge, and Do Tromp. Joan Bossert, who California National Primate Center and University
served as editor of both editions of the book, pro- of California, Davis. Regina Lapate’s work is
vided support and guidance throughout the multi-​ supported by the National Institutes of Health
year project of writing and assembling the book. (MH113347). Alexander Shackman’s work is
We also want to acknowledge the seminal supported by the National Institutes of Health
contributions of our distinguished colleague and (DA040717, MH107444) and the University of
contributor, Jaak Panksepp (1943–​ 2017), who Maryland, College Park. Richard Davidson’s work
helped popularize the idea of affective neurosci- is supported by the National Institutes of Health
ence as a distinct field of scientific inquiry. Jaak (AG051426, AT004952, HD090256, MH018931,
passed away just before this volume went to press. MH043454, MH100031), Silicon Valley Community
Andrew Fox, Regina Lapate, and Alexander Foundation, the University of Wisconsin–​Madison,
Shackman acknowledge the unique intellec- and several gifts to the Center for Healthy Minds.
tual opportunities afforded to us and to many
—​A.S.F., R.C.L., A.J.S., & R.J.D.
other trainees at the University of California,
xvi
xv

E D I TO R C O N T R I BU T I O N S

R.J.D. and Paul Ekman developed the overall essays and wrote the Afterwords. R.J.D. wrote
structure and spirit of the book. A.J.S. initiated the preface to Ekman’s essay. The Editors de-
the second edition. R.J.D. coordinated veloped the overall structure of the Epilogue.
interactions with the Publisher and provided A.S.F. and A.J.S. wrote the Epilogue. The Editors
theoretical and practical guidance. The Editors revised the Epilogue. A.J.S. wrote the ancillary
collectively developed the 14 fundamental sections of the book, including the Introduction.
questions and recruited Contributors. A.S.F. de- A.S.F. and R.C.L. revised the ancillary sections.
veloped a database and wrote code to track The Editors and Contributors proofread and ed-
essay submissions and communicate with ited the final copy for their respective portions
Contributors. A.S.F., R.C.L., and A.J.S. edited of the book.
xvi
xvi

C O N T R I BU TO R S

Ralph Adolphs D. Caroline Blanchard


Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pacific Biosciences Research Center
Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for University of Hawaii at Mānoa
Neuroscience
Caltech Brain Imaging Center Lindsay C. Bowman
California Institute of Technology Center for Mind and Brain and Department of
Psychology
Adam K. Anderson University of California, Davis
Department of Human Development
Cornell University Margaret M. Bradley
Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention,
Lauren Y. Atlas Gainesville, FL
National Center for Complementary and University of Florida
Integrative Health
Laura L. Carstensen
Yair Bar-​Haim Department of Psychology
School of Psychological Sciences Stanford University
Tel Aviv University
Julia Cataldo
Lisa Feldman Barrett Boston Children’s Hospital
Department of Psychology
Northeastern University; Joshua M. Carlson
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging Department of Psychology
Massachusetts General Hospital, Northern Michigan University
Charlestown, MA;
Department of Psychiatry Luke J. Chang
Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychological and
Harvard Medical School Brain Sciences
Dartmouth College
Nick Berggren
Department of Psychological Sciences Joan Y. Chiao
Birkbeck University of London International Cultural Neuroscience
Consortium
Kent C. Berridge
Department of Psychology Gerald L. Clore
University of Michigan Department of Psychology
University of Virginia
Jennifer Urbano Blackford
Departments of Psychological Sciences and
Psychiatry
Vanderbilt University
xvi

xviii Contributors

Roshan Cools Haakon G. Engen


Department of Psychiatry Department of Social Neuroscience
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre; Max-​Planck-​Institute of Human Cognitive
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and and Brain Sciences
Behaviour MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit,
Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging Cambridge, UK
Radboud University
Dominic S. Fareri
Daniel T. Cordaro Gordon F. Derner Advanced Institute for
The Contentment Foundation Psychological Studies
Adelphi University
Eveline A. Crone
Developmental and Educational Andrew S. Fox
Psychology Unit Department of Psychology
Institute of Psychology California National Primate Research Center
Leiden University University of California, Davis

Antonio Damasio Nathan A. Fox


Brain and Creativity Institute Department of Human Development and
University of Southern California Quantitative Methodology
University of Maryland
Hanna Damasio
Brain and Creativity Institute Barbara L. Fredrickson
University of Southern California Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
University of North Carolina
Richard J. Davidson at Chapel Hill
Departments of Psychology
and Psychiatry Jonathan B. Freeman
Center for Healthy Minds Department of Psychology
University of Wisconsin–​Madison New York University

Mauricio R. Delgado Karl J. Friston


Department of Psychology The Wellcome Trust Centre for
Rutgers University Neuroimaging
University College London
Nazanin Derakshan
Department of Psychological Sciences Matthias Gamer
Birkbeck University of London Department of Psychology
Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg
Nancy Eisenberg
Arizona State University Beatrice de Gelder
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience
Naomi I. Eisenberger Maastricht University
Department of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles Maria Gendron
Department of Psychology
Paul Ekman Northeastern University
Paul Ekman Group, LLC, San Francisco
Paul Glimcher
Phoebe C. Ellsworth Center for Neural Science
University of Michigan New York University

Jan B. Engelmann Hill H. Goldsmith


Amsterdam School of Economics Department of Psychology
University of Amsterdam University of Wisconsin–​Madison
xi

Contributors xix

Todd A. Hare Dacher Keltner


Department of Economics Department of Psychology
University of Zurich University of California, Berkeley

Lasana T. Harris Brian Knutson


Department of Social and Organizational Department of Psychology
Psychology Stanford University
Leiden University
Anjali Krishnan
Catherine Hartley Brooklyn College of the City University of
Department of Psychology New York
New York University
Peter J. Lang
Maciel M. Hernández Center for the Study of Emotion
Department of Psychology and Attention
Portland State University University of Florida

Aaron S. Heller Regina C. Lapate


Department of Psychology Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
University of Miami University of California, Berkeley

Ursula Hess Daniel H. Lee


Department of Psychology Institute of Cognitive Science
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin University of Colorado, Boulder

Emma Hitchcock Edward P. Lemay, Jr.


University of Colorado Department of Psychology
University of Maryland
Candice Hogan
Department of Psychology Amy Lehrner
Stanford University James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx,
New York;
Quentin Huys Department of Psychiatry
Translational Neuromodeling Unit Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
ETH Zürich and University of Zürich
Robert W. Levenson
Mateus Joffily Department of Psychology and Institute of
Groupe d’Analyse et de Theorie Economique Personality and Social Research
Centre National de la Recherche University of California, Berkeley
Scientifique, Lyon
Wen Li
Tom Johnstone Department of Psychology
School of Psychology and Clinical Language Florida State University
Sciences and Centre for Integrative
Neuroscience and Neurodynamics Matthew D. Lieberman
University of Reading University of California, Los Angeles

Eshin Jolly Verena Ly


Department of Psychological Department of Psychiatry
and Brain Sciences Radboud University Nijmegen
Dartmouth College Medical Centre;
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and
Jerome Kagan Behaviour
Department of Psychology Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Harvard University Radboud University
x

xx Contributors

Keren Maoz Hadas Okon-​Singer


School of Psychological Sciences Department of Psychology
Tel Aviv University University of Haifa

Marie-​France Marin Hanneke den Ouden


Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health Department of Psychiatry
University Institute Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre;
Department of Psychiatry Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and
University of Montreal Behaviour
Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Jared Martin Radboud University
Department of Psychology
University of Wisconsin–​Madison Jaak Panksepp (deceased)
Department of Integrative Physiology and
Bruce S. McEwen Neuroscience
Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory College of Veterinary Medicine
of Neuroendocrinology Washington State University
The Rockefeller University
Carolyn Parkinson
Katie A. McLaughlin Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology University of California, Los Angeles
University of Washington
Brandon L. Pearson
Andrew N. Meltzoff University of North Carolina
Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences Neuroscience Center
Department of Psychology University of North Carolina School of Medicine
University of Washington
Luiz Pessoa
Mohammed R. Milad Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and
Department of Psychiatry Cognitive Science Program
University of Illinois at Chicago Maryland Neuroimaging Center
University of Maryland
Elisabeth A. Murray
Section on the Neurobiology of Learning Jennifer H. Pfeifer
and Memory Department of Psychology
Laboratory of Neuropsychology University of Oregon
National Institute of Mental Health
Rosalind W. Picard
Kristin Naragon-​Gainey MIT Media Laboratory
Department of Psychology Massachusetts Institute of Technology
State University of New York at Buffalo
Justin Reber
Charles A. Nelson Departments of Neurology and Psychology
Harvard Medical School University of Iowa
Boston Children’s Hospital
Harvard Graduate School of Education Carien M. van Reekum
School of Psychology and Clinical Language
Paula Niedenthal Sciences
Department of Psychology Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and
University of Wisconsin–​Madison Neurodynamics
University of Reading
Lucas R. Novak
Department of Psychology David A. Reinhard
University of Wisconsin–​Madison University of Virginia
xxi

Contributors xxi

Betty M. Repacholi Mirre Stallen


Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology Stanford University
University of Washington
Melissa D. Stockbridge
Edmund T. Rolls Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience University of Maryland
Department of Computer Science
University of Warwick, Coventry Daniel M. Stout
Center of Excellence for Stress and
Melissa A. Rosenkranz Mental Health
Center for Healthy Minds VA San Diego Healthcare System;
University of Wisconsin–​Madison Department of Psychiatry
University of California, San Diego
Carol D. Ryff
Institute on Aging Marco Tamietto
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
University of Wisconsin–​Madison University of Torino, Italy;
Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic
Tim V. Salomons Diseases—​CoRPS
Department of Psychology Tilburg University, The Netherlands;
Queen’s University; Department of Experimental Psychology
School of Psychology and Clinical Language University of Oxford
Sciences
University of Reading Alexandra Touroutoglou
Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry
Disa Sauter Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Department of Psychology Massachusetts General Hospital
University of Amsterdam
Jessica Tracy
Anil K. Seth University of British Columbia
Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science
Department of Informatics Daniel Tranel
University of Sussex Departments of Neurology and Psychology
University of Iowa
Alexander J. Shackman
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Kay M. Tye
Cognitive Science Program Picower Institute for Learning
Maryland Neuroimaging Center and Memory
University of Maryland Department of Brain and Cognitive
Sciences
Rebecca L. Shiner Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Psychology
Colgate University Agnieszka Tymula
School of Economics
Tamara Sims University of Sydney
Department of Psychology
Stanford University Tania Singer
Department of Social Neuroscience
Peter Sokol-​Hessner Max-​Planck-​Institute of Human Cognitive and
Department of Psychology Brain Sciences, Leipzig
University of Denver
Tor D. Wager
Leah H. Somerville Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Harvard University University of Colorado, Boulder
xxi

xxii Contributors

Leanne Williams Rachel Yehuda


Stanford University School of Medicine, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx,
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences New York
Mental Illness Research Education and Department of Psychiatry
Clinical Center Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Yuqi You
Adrienne Wood Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology Florida State University
University of Wisconsin–​Madison
David H. Zald
Jolie Wormwood Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry and
Department of Psychology Psychiatry
Northeastern University Vanderbilt University
xxi

I N T RO D U C T I O N
A L E X A N D E R J. S H AC K M A N, A N D R E W S . F O X , R E G I N A C . L A PAT E ,
A N D R I C H A R D J. D AV I D S O N

Emotion is a defining feature of the human condi- emotion. The book included 63 short essays, written
tion and, thus, it is hardly surprising that it plays by 23 prominent researchers and theorists, with in-
a central role in contemporary scientific models tegrative commentaries written by Ekman and
of decision making, human development, inter- Davidson. Kenrick and Funder argued that “science
personal processes, personality, psychopathology, best progresses through multiple and mutually
and well-​ being. Methods and theories devel- critical attempts to understand the same problem”
oped by emotion researchers have profoundly (Kenrick & Funder, 1988, p. 32), and the side-​by-​
influenced the development of the fifth edition of side responses that made up The Nature of Emotion
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental provided a valuable opportunity for sharpening
Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, constructs, identifying unspoken assumptions, and
2013), the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health’s highlighting soft spots in the evidentiary record.
strategic plan and Research Domain Criteria But a quarter-​century is a long time. The first
(RDoC) initiative, as well as emerging dimensional edition of The Nature of Emotion predated several
models of psychopathology (e.g., Kotov et al., 2017; methodological revolutions—​ in brain imaging,
Krueger et al., in press; Clark et al., 2017; Zald & computing, genomics, network science, open
Lahey, 2017). Emotion researchers now occupy science, optogenetics, and ‘wearable’ technologies,
leadership positions in a number of scientific to name a few—​that have profoundly influenced
societies, including several focused on affect,1 and or promise to soon influence our understanding
are well represented among the faculty at top re- of emotion. So, while its bright red cover can still
search universities around the world. Numerous be seen on the bookshelf in many faculty offices,
highly cited reviews, special issues, specialty the first edition is rarely read or used for teaching
journals,2 and books—​academic as well as pop- anymore.
ular—​attest to the high level of interest in emotion The second edition of The Nature of Emotion
(e.g., Adolphs & Anderson, 2018; Ashar, Chang, & fills this gap and provide a definitive survey of
Wager, 2017; Bach & Dayan, 2017; Barrett, 2017; the current state of the affective sciences. Like
Barrett, Lewis, & Haviland-​Jones, 2016; Barsade & the first edition, the book is organized into
Knight, 2015; Davidson & Begley, 2012; Hu, 2016; short chapters focused on basic questions about
LeDoux, 2015; Lerner, Li, Valdesolo, & Kassam, the nature and origins of emotion. Many of the
2015; Niedenthal & Brauer, 2012; Okon-​ Singer, questions were inspired by the first edition. A few
Hendler, Pessoa, & Shackman, 2015; Sheppes, Suri, of the original questions have been definitively
& Gross, 2015; Zald & Treadway, 2017). answered over the past 25 years (Can we control
Nearly 25 years ago, Paul Ekman and Richard our emotions?) and were reframed for the new
Davidson spearheaded the first edition of The edition (How are emotions regulated by context
Nature of Emotion (1994), an edited volume focused and cognition?). Other questions are entirely new
on 12 questions about the nature and origins of (What is the added value of studying the brain for
xvxi

xxiv Introduction

understanding emotion?). Each of the 14 questions an Afterword, highlighting key points of con-
is addressed by a collection of experts chosen to sensus and disagreement.
represent a range of disciplines and methodo- A major goal of The Nature of Emotion is to
logical approaches. For many of the chapters, take stock of what we have learned as students
we invited a prominent researcher to address a of emotion and inspire the next generation of re-
question that fell outside of his or her core area of search and conceptual work. We share Ekman and
expertise, providing an important dose of outside Davidson’s aspiration for the first edition: “It is
perspective. Altogether, 118 scientists contributed our hope that this volume will serve as a guide for
91 essays, a sizable increase over the first edition. students and researchers and help to define the re-
By design, the composition of this group was search agenda for affective science” in the coming
more gender-​diverse than the first edition and in- years. In the Epilogue, we have provided our own
cluded a number of early-​career “rising stars.” At updated vision of that research agenda.
the end of each chapter, the Editors have written
xv

P R E FAC E TO PAU L
E K M A N ’ S E S S AY
R I C H A R D J . D AV I D S O N

I first met Paul Ekman in 1974 when I was a deeply meaningful life. This passion is one that
graduate student at Harvard and Paul was vis- continues to the present day and has deeply im-
iting Boston. I then had the opportunity to bond pacted his views and his personal life. He has been
with him in 1980 when I was giving a talk at the interested in how meditation practices from an-
International Neuropsychological Society, which cient contemplative traditions might be used to
was meeting in San Francisco. I was an assistant transform emotion and has engaged in a dialogue
professor at the time, and I remember thinking that with the Dalai Lama on these issues that has led
Paul would spend 15 or 20 minutes with me. We to the publication of a book that is destined to be
ended up spending several hours together during influential in the annals of affective science (Dalai
that visit, laying the groundwork for what would Lama & Ekman, 2009).
become a lifelong friendship and collaboration. I have personally been deeply affected by Paul.
In this essay, Paul presents a wide-​ranging sum- His contributions to affective science will live on
mary of his views on how emotions work. Although for generations, and his insights will help to shape
the insights shared in this essay are, for the most the next generation of emotion research (Darwin
part, not derived from empirical scientific research, 1872/​2009; Ekman, 2007, 2016; Ekman & Cordaro,
they are based on his extraordinarily keen powers 2011; Ekman & Rosenberg, 1997). Paul also seam-
of observation. Paul is unusually attentive to sig- lessly integrated basic and applied research and
nals of emotion, and it is very appropriate to say never shied away from the challenge of how his
that he has spent more than six decades observing work might benefit different sectors in society (e.g.,
emotions in himself and others with uncanny sen- Ekman, 2001, 2003). In fact, he relished the oppor-
sitivity. This perch gives him a panoramic vantage tunity to engage in practical research that made
point for his provocative observations. a real difference. His influence in many different
While some of his suggestions are controversial sectors of the culture, ranging from law enforce-
(e.g., the adoption of Silvan Tomkins’s framework ment to mental health treatment and health care,
of “affect program” or the notion of a refractory pe- will be felt for many years to come. He never shied
riod immediately following the elicitation of emo- away from being a provocateur, and his views and
tion during which an emotion cannot be modified), findings were often controversial. I have come to ap-
they are always clearly articulated and presented in preciate that truly novel work is destined to be con-
a courageous way so that others can test, modify, or troversial, particularly when it is first introduced.
refute them as new data are gathered. I am extremely fortunate to call Paul a close
Paul clearly had the vision that understanding friend, a colleague, and a mentor. The inclusion
emotions are key to well-​being and to living a of this essay in this new edition of The Nature
xvi

xxvi Preface to Paul Ekman’s Essay

of Emotion is in part to honor Paul’s seminal Author’s Note


contributions and to ensure that the current and Portions of this essay were adapted from Chapters
next generation of emotion scientists have at least 2–4 of Emotions revealed: Recognizing faces and
some historical familiarity with one of the most feelings to improve communication and emotional
influential affective scientists of the twentieth life (Ekman, 2007).
century.
xxvi

H OW E M OT I O N S
M I G H T WO R K
PAU L E K M A N

We don’t become emotional about everything; we the processes involved—​can also work against us,
are not in the grip of emotion all the time. Emotions causing inappropriate emotional reactions.
come and go. They occur when we sense, rightly or In that first instant, the decision or evaluation
wrongly, that something that seriously affects our that brings forth the emotion is extraordinarily
welfare, for better or worse, is happening or about fast and outside of our awareness. We must have
to happen. (Although this is the most common automatic appraising mechanisms that are con-
path for awakening an emotion, there are eight tinually scanning the world around us, detecting
other paths for generating emotion; Ekman, 2007, when something important to our welfare, to our
Chapter 2). Emotions evolved to prepare us to deal survival, is happening.
quickly with the most vital events in our lives. Nearly everyone who does research on emo-
Much of the time our emotions serve us well, tion today agrees with what I have described so
mobilizing us to deal with what is most impor- far: emotions are reactions to matters that seem
tant in life, but sometimes our emotions get us into to be very important to our welfare, and emotions
trouble: We may feel and show the right emotion often begin so quickly that we are not aware of the
but at the wrong intensity; or we may feel the appro- processes in our mind that set them off. Research
priate emotion, but we show it the wrong way (e.g., on the brain is consistent with what I have so far
our anger was justified, but resorting to the silent suggested. We can make very complex evaluations
treatment was childish); or we may feel and show an very quickly, in milliseconds, without being aware
emotion that is simply inappropriate to the situation of the evaluative process.
that we are in. Now let me raise questions about which there
As an emotion begins, it takes us over in those is disagreement. What are our automatic appraisal
first milliseconds, directing what we do and say mechanisms sensitive to, and how did they become
and think. Emotions prepare us to deal with im- sensitive to those triggers? How do emotion triggers
portant events without our having to think about become established? The answers will tell us why
what to do. Emotions produce changes in parts of we have an emotion when we do. It will also help
our brain that mobilize us to deal with what has us answer the question of why we sometimes have
set off the emotion, as well as changes in our auto- emotions that don’t seem at all appropriate, while at
nomic nervous system (ANS), which regulates our other moments our emotions are perfectly attuned
heart rate, breathing, sweating, and many other to what is happening, and may even save our lives.
bodily changes, preparing us for different actions. Most of what we know has not come from
Emotions also send out signals: changes in our actually observing when people experience an
expressions, face, voice, and bodily posture. We emotion. Instead, it comes from their answers to
don’t choose these changes; they simply happen. questionnaires about when they remember feeling
This wonderful feature of our emotions—​that they one or another emotion. Philosopher Peter Goldie,
can and usually do begin without our awareness of in his insightful book (Goldie, 2000), calls this kind
xxvii

xxviii How Emotions Might Work

of information “post-​ rationalizing.” This is not the course of growing up. The further removed the
to dismiss such information. The answers people variation is from the theme, the longer it may take,
give on such questionnaires, like the explanations until we get to the point where reflective appraising
we give ourselves after an emotional episode to occurs. In reflective appraising, we are consciously
account for why we did what we did, may be in- aware of our evaluative processes; we are thinking
complete and perhaps stereotyped because they go about and considering what is happening.
through the filters of what people are aware of and We are born prepared, with an unfolding sen-
remember. On questionnaires there is the addi- sitivity to the events that were relevant to the sur-
tional issue of what people are willing to tell others. vival of our species in its ancestral environment as
But the answers can still teach us quite a bit. hunters and gatherers. The themes for which the
Some things make nearly everyone feel the autoappraisers are constantly scanning our envi-
same emotion—​ a menacing person, carrying a ronment, typically without our knowing it, were
club, who suddenly appears on a dark street, al- selected over the course of our evolution. The idi-
most always triggers fear. But my wife is afraid of osyncratic variations, each person’s own emotional
mice, and they don’t frighten me at all. The auto- triggers, are learned, reflecting what each of us
matic appraisals must be on the alert for two kinds experiences.
of triggers. They must be scanning for events that Evidence consistent with this view comes
everyone encounters, events that are important to from a brilliant series of studies by the Swedish
the welfare or survival of all human beings. For psychologist Arne Öhman (1993). Also, in his
each emotion there might be a few such events that extraordinarily prescient book The Expression
are stored in the brains of every human being. It of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles
might be a schema, an abstract outline, or the bare Darwin described an experiment with a snake he
bones of a scene, such as the threat of harm for performed more than a hundred years ago:
fear, or some important loss for sadness. Another,
equally likely, possibility is that what is stored is I put my face close to the thick glass-​plate
not at all abstract, but is a specific event, such as, in front of a puff-​ adder in the Zoological
for fear, the loss of support, or something coming Gardens, with the firm determination of not
at us so quickly that it is likely to hit us. For sadness, starting back if the snake struck at me; but,
the universal trigger might be the loss of a loved as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution
one, of a person to whom one is strongly attached. went for nothing, and I jumped a yard or two
There is no scientific basis yet for choosing be- backwards with astonishing rapidity. My will
tween these two possibilities, but it does not make and reason were powerless against the imagi-
a difference for how we lead our emotional lives. nation of a danger which had never been expe-
Over the course of our lives, we encounter rienced. (pp. 43–​44)
many specific events that we learn to interpret in
such a way as to frighten, anger, disgust, sadden, Darwin’s experience shows how rational
surprise, or please us, and these are added to the thought cannot prevent a fearful response to an
universal antecedent events, expanding on what innate fear theme, an issue to which I will return
the automatic appraisers (hereafter, autoappraiser) shortly.
are alert to. These learned events may closely or We benefit from the experience of our species
distantly resemble the originally stored events. on this planet, quickly responding to triggers that
They are elaborations of, or additions to, the uni- have been relevant to our survival. I am convinced
versal antecedent events. They are not the same for that one of the most distinctive features of emo-
all people but vary with what we each experience. tion is that the events that trigger emotions are
I use the word theme for what is universal, and influenced not just by our individual experience,
variations on those themes that develop in each but also by our ancestral past. Emotions, in the
person’s experiences (Ekman & Friesen, 1975; felicitous phrase of Richard Lazarus, reflect the
note: later, Lazarus adopted our terminology in his “wisdom of the ages,” both in the emotion themes
book: Lazarus, 1991b). and the emotion responses. The autoappraisers are
When we encounter a theme, such as the scanning for what has been important to survival
sensations we experience when a chair unexpect- not just in our own individual lives, but also in the
edly falls out from under us, it triggers an emo- lives of our hunter-​gatherer ancestors.
tion with very little evaluation. It may take a bit Sometimes we respond emotionally to matters
longer for the autoappraisers to evaluate any of the that were important to us earlier in our lives but
variations on each theme, the ones we learned in that are no longer relevant. The variations on
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CHAPTER II
THE GATEWAY TO EGYPT

I am again in Alexandria, the great sea-port of the valley of the


Nile. My first visit to it was just before Arabi Pasha started the
rebellion which threw Egypt into the hands of the British. I saw it
again seven years later on my way around the world. I find now a
new city, which has risen up and swallowed the Alexandria of the
past.
The Alexandria of to-day stands upon the site of the greatest of
the commercial centres of antiquity, but its present buildings are as
young as those of New York, Chicago, or Boston. It is one of the
boom towns of the Old World, and has all grown up within a century.
When George Washington was president it was little more than a
village; it has now approximately a half million inhabitants.
This is a city with all modern improvements. It has wide streets as
well paved as those of Washington, public squares that compare
favourably with many in Europe, and buildings that would be an
ornament to any metropolis on our continent. It is now a city of street
cars and automobiles. Its citizens walk or ride to its theatres by the
light of electricity, and its rich men gamble by reading the ticker in its
stock exchange. It is a town of big hotels, gay cafés, and palaces
galore. In addition to its several hundred thousand Mohammedans, it
has a large population of Greeks, Italians, and other Europeans,
among them some of the sharpest business men of the
Mediterranean lands. Alexandria has become commercial, money
making, and fortune hunting. The rise and fall of stocks, the boom in
real estate, and the modern methods of getting something for
nothing are its chief subjects of conversation, and the whole
population is after the elusive piastre and the Egyptian pound as
earnestly as the American is chasing the nickel and the dollar.
The city grows because it is at the sea-gate to Egypt and the
Sudan. It waxes fat on the trade of the Nile valley and takes toll of
every cent’s worth of goods that comes in and goes out. More than
four thousand vessels enter the port every year and in the harbour
there are steamers from every part of the world. I came to Egypt
from Tripoli via Malta, where I took passage on a steamer bound for
India and Australia, and any week I can get a ship which within
fifteen days will carry me back to New York.
One of the things to which Alexandria owes its greatness is the
canal that Mehemet Ali, founder of the present ruling dynasty of
Egypt, had dug from this place to the Nile. This remarkable man was
born the son of a poor Albanian farmer and lived for a number of
years in his little native port as a petty official and tobacco trader. He
first came into prominence when he led a band of volunteers against
Napoleon in Egypt. Later still he joined the Sultan of Turkey in
fighting the Mamelukes for the control of the country. The massacre
of the Mamelukes in 1811 left the shrewd Albanian supreme in the
land, and, after stirring up an Egyptian question that set the Powers
of Europe more or less by the ears with each other and with the
Sultan of Turkey, he was made Viceroy of Egypt, with nominal
allegiance to the Turkish ruler. When he selected Alexandria as his
capital, it was a village having no connection with the Nile. He dug a
canal fifty miles long to that great waterway, through which a stream
of vessels is now ever passing, carrying goods to the towns of the
valley and bringing out cotton, sugar, grain, and other products, for
export to Europe. The canal was constructed by forced labour. The
peasants, or fellaheen, to the number of a quarter of a million,
scooped the sand out with their hands and carried it away in baskets
on their backs. It took them a year to dig that fifty-mile ditch, and they
were so overworked that thirty thousand of them died on the job.
Ismail Pasha, grandson of Mehemet Ali, made other
improvements on the canal and harbour, and after the British took
control of Egypt they bettered Alexandria in every possible way.
It has now one of the best of modern harbours. The port is
protected by a breakwater two miles in length, and the biggest ocean
steamers come to the quays. There are twenty-five hundred acres of
safe anchorage inside its haven, while the arrangements for coaling
and for handling goods are unsurpassed.
These conditions are typical of the New Egypt. Old Mother Nile,
with her great dams and new irrigation works, has renewed her
youth and is growing in wealth like a jimson weed in an asparagus
bed. When I first saw the Nile, its valley was a country of the dead,
with obelisks and pyramids as its chief landmarks. Then its most
interesting characters were the mummified kings of more than twenty
centuries ago and the principal visitors were antiquity hunters and
one-lunged tourists seeking a warm winter climate. These same
characters are here to-day, but in addition have come the ardent
dollar chaser, the capitalist, and the syndicate. Egypt is now a land of
banks and stock exchanges. It is thronged with civil engineers,
irrigation experts, and men interested in the development of the
country by electricity and steam. The delta, or the great fan of land
which begins at Cairo and stretches out to the Mediterranean, is
gridironed with steel tracks and railroad trains, continuing almost to
the heart of central Africa.
I find Egypt changing in character. The Mohammedans are being
corrupted by the Christians, and the simple living taught by the
Koran, which commands the believer to abstain from strong drink
and other vices, has become infected with the gay and giddy
pleasures of the French. In many cases the system of the harem is
being exchanged for something worse. The average Moslem now
has but one wife, but in many cases he has a sweetheart in a house
around the corner, “and the last state of that man is worse than the
first.”
The ghouls of modern science are robbing the graves of those
who made the Pyramids. A telephone line has been stretched out of
Cairo almost to the ear of the Sphinx, and there is a hotel at the base
of the Pyramid of Cheops where English men and women drink
brandy and soda between games of tennis and golf.
Cotton warehouses and docks extend for a mile along the Mahmudiyeh Canal
connecting the port of Alexandria with the Nile River, and the prosperity of the city
rises and falls with the price of cotton in the world’s markets.
Nubian women sell fruit and flowers on the streets of Alexandria to-day, but once
their kings ruled all Egypt and defeated the armies of Rome. They became early
converts to Christianity but later adopted Mohammedanism.

The Egypt of to-day is a land of mighty hotels and multitudinous


tourists. For years it has been estimated that Americans alone spend
several million dollars here every winter, and the English, French,
and other tourists almost as much. It is said that in the average
season ten thousand Americans visit the Nile valley and that it costs
each one of them at least ten dollars for every day of his stay.
When I first visited this country the donkey was the chief means of
transport, and men, women, and children went about on long-eared
beasts, with Arab boys in blue gowns following behind and urging
the animals along by poking sharp sticks into patches of bare flesh,
as big as a dollar, which had been denuded of skin for the purpose.
The donkey and the donkey boy are here still, but I can get a street
car in Alexandria that will take me to any part of the town, and I
frequently have to jump to get out of the way of an automobile. There
are cabs everywhere, both Alexandria and Cairo having them by
thousands.
The new hotels are extravagant beyond description. In the one
where I am now writing the rates are from eighty to one hundred
piastres per day. Inside its walls I am as far from Old Egypt as I
would be in the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The servants are
French-speaking Swiss in “swallow-tails”, with palms itching for fees
just as do those of their class in any modern city. In my bedroom
there is an electric bell, and I can talk over the telephone to our
Consul General at Cairo. On the register of the hotel, which is
packed with guests, I see names of counts by the score and lords by
the dozen. The men come to dinner in steel-pen coats and the
women in low-cut evening frocks of silk and satin. There is a babel of
English, French, and German in the lounge while the guests drink
coffee after dinner, and the only evidences one perceives of a land of
North Africa and the Moslems are the tall minarets which here and
there reach above the other buildings of the city, and the voices of
the muezzins as they stand beneath them and call the
Mohammedans to prayer.
The financial changes that I have mentioned are by no means
confined to the Christians. The natives have been growing rich, and
the Mohammedans for the first time in the history of Egypt have
been piling up money. Since banking and money lending are
contrary to the Koran, the Moslems invest their surplus in real estate,
a practice which has done much to swell all land values.
Egypt is still a country of the Egyptians, notwithstanding the
overlordship of the British and the influx of foreigners. It has now
more than ten million people. Of these, three out of every four are
either Arabs or Copts. Most of them are Mohammedans, although
there are, all told, something like eight hundred and sixty thousand
Copts, descendants of the ancient Egyptians, who have a rude kind
of Christianity, and are, as a body, better educated and wealthier
than the Mussulmans.
The greater part of the foreign population of Egypt is to be found in
Alexandria and Cairo, and in the other towns of the Nile valley, as
well as in Suez and Port Said. There are more of the Greeks than of
any other nation. For more than two thousand years they have been
exploiting the Egyptians and the Nile valley and are to-day the
sharpest, shrewdest, and most unscrupulous business men in it.
They do much of the banking and money lending and until the
government established banks of its own and brought down the
interest rate they demanded enormous usury from the Egyptian
peasants. It is said that they loaned money on lands and crops at an
average charge of one hundred and fifty per cent. per annum.
This was changed, however, by the establishment of the
Agricultural Bank. The government, which controls that bank, lends
money to the farmers at eight per cent. to within half of the value of
their farms. To-day, since the peasants all over Egypt can get money
at this rate, the Greeks have had to reduce theirs.
The Italians number about forty thousand and the French twenty
thousand. There are many Italian shops here in Alexandria, while
there are hundreds of Italians doing business in Cairo. They also
furnish some of the best mechanics. Many of them are masons and
the greater part of the Aswan Dam and similar works were
constructed by them.
There are also Germans, Austrians, and Russians, together with a
few Americans and Belgians. The British community numbers a little
over twenty thousand. Among the other foreigners are some Maltese
and a few hundred British East Indians.
Sitting here at Alexandria in a modern hotel surrounded by the
luxuries of Paris or New York, I find it hard to realize that I am in one
of the very oldest cities of history. Yesterday I started out to look up
relics of the past, going by mile after mile of modern buildings,
though I was travelling over the site of the metropolis that flourished
here long before Christ was born. From the antiquarian’s point of
view, the only object of note still left is Pompey’s Pillar and that is
new in comparison with the earliest history of Old Egypt, as it was
put up only sixteen hundred years ago, when Alexandria was already
one of the greatest cities of the world. The monument was supposed
to stand over the grave of Pompey, but it was really erected by an
Egyptian prefect in honour of the Roman emperor, Diocletian. It was
at one time a landmark for sailors, for there was always upon its top
a burning fire which was visible for miles over the Mediterranean
Sea. The pillar is a massive Corinthian column of beautifully polished
red granite as big around as the boiler of a railroad locomotive and
as high as a ten-story apartment house. It consists of one solid block
of stone, standing straight up on a pedestal. It was dug out of the
quarries far up the Nile valley, brought down the river on rafts and in
some way lifted to its present position. In their excavations about the
pedestal, the archæologists learned of its comparatively modern
origin and, digging down into the earth far below its foundation,
discovered several massive stone sphinxes. These date back to old
Alexandria and were chiselled several hundreds of years before
Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus on an ass, across the
desert, into the valley of the Nile that he might not be killed by Herod
the King.
This city was founded by Alexander the Great three hundred and
thirty-two years before Christ was born. It probably had then more
people than it has to-day, for it was not only a great commercial port,
but also a centre of learning, religion, and art. It is said to have had
the grandest library of antiquity. The manuscripts numbered nine
hundred thousand and artists and students came from all parts to
study here. At the time of the Cæsars it was as big as Boston, and
when it was taken by the Arabs, along about 641 a.d., it had four
thousand palaces, four hundred public baths, four hundred places of
amusement, and twelve thousand gardens. When Alexander the
Great founded it he brought in a colony of Jews, and at the time the
Mohammedans came the Jewish quarter numbered forty thousand.
At Alexandria St. Mark first preached Christianity to the Egyptians,
and subsequently the city became one of the Christian centres of the
world. Here Hypatia lived, and here, as she was about to enter a
heathen temple to worship, the Christian monks, led by Peter the
Reader, tore her from her chariot and massacred her. They scraped
her live flesh from her bones with oyster shells, and then tore her
body limb from limb.
Here, too, Cleopatra corrupted Cæsar and later brought Marc
Antony to a suicidal grave. There are carvings of the enchantress of
the Nile still to be seen on some of the Egyptian temples far up the
river valley. I have a photograph of one which is in good preservation
in the Temple of Denderah. Its features are Greek rather than
Egyptian, for she was more of a Greek than a Simon-pure daughter
of the Nile. She was not noted for beauty, but she had such
wonderful charm of manner, sweetness of voice, and brilliancy of
intellect, that she was able to allure and captivate the greatest men
of her time.
Cleopatra’s first Roman lover was Julius Cæsar, who came to
Alexandria to settle the claims of herself and her brother to the
throne of Egypt. Her father, who was one of the Ptolemies, had at his
death left his throne to her younger brother and herself, and
according to the custom the two were to marry and reign together.
One of the brother’s guardians, however, had dethroned and
banished Cleopatra. She was not in Egypt when Cæsar came. It is
not known whether it was at Cæsar’s request or not, but the story
goes that she secretly made her way back to Alexandria, and was
carried inside a roll of rich Syrian rugs on the back of a servant to
Cæsar’s apartments. Thus she was presented to the mighty Roman
and so delighted him that he restored her to the throne. When he left
for Rome some time later he took her with him and kept her there for
a year or two. After the murder of Cæsar, Cleopatra, who had
returned to Egypt, made a conquest of Marc Antony and remained
his sweetheart to the day when he committed suicide upon the report
that she had killed herself. Antony had then been conquered by
Octavianus, his brother-in-law, and it is said that Cleopatra tried to
capture the heart of Octavianus before she took her own life by
putting the poisonous asp to her breast.
CHAPTER III
KING COTTON ON THE NILE

The whole of to-day has been spent wandering about the cotton
wharves of Alexandria. They extend for a mile or so up and down the
Mahmudiyeh Canal, which joins the city to the Nile, and are flanked
on the other side by railroads filled with cotton trains from every part
of Egypt. These wharves lie under the shadow of Pompey’s Pillar
and line the canal almost to the harbour. Upon them are great
warehouses filled with bales and bags. Near by are cotton presses,
while in the city itself is a great cotton exchange where the people
buy and sell, as they do at Liverpool, from the samples of lint which
show the quality of the bales brought in from the plantations.
Indeed, cotton is as big a factor here as it is in New Orleans, and
the banks of this canal make one think of that city’s great cotton
market. The warehouses are of vast extent, and the road between
them and the waterway is covered with bales of lint and great bags
of cotton seed. Skullcapped blue-gowned Egyptians sit high up on
the bales on long-bedded wagons hauled by mules. Other Egyptians
unload the bales from the cars and the boats and others carry them
to the warehouses. They bear the bales and the bags on their backs,
while now and then a man may be seen carrying upon his head a
bag of loose cotton weighing a couple of hundred pounds. The
cotton seed is taken from the boats in the same way, seed to the
amount of three hundred pounds often making one man’s load.
Late in the afternoon I went down to the harbour to see the cotton
steamers. They were taking on cargoes for Great Britain, Russia,
France, Germany, and the United States. This staple forms three
fourths of the exports of Egypt. Millions of pounds of it are annually
shipped to the United States, notwithstanding the fact that we raise
more than two thirds of all the cotton of the world. Because of its
long fibre, there is always a great demand for Egyptian cotton, which
is worth more on the average than that of any other country.
For hundreds of years before the reign of that wily old tyrant,
Mehemet Ali, whose rule ended with the middle of the nineteenth
century, Egypt had gone along with the vast majority of her people
poor, working for a wage of ten cents or so a day, and barely out of
reach of starvation all the time. Mehemet Ali saw that what she
needed to become truly prosperous and raise the standard of living
was some crop in which she might be the leader. It was he who
introduced long-staple cotton, a product worth three times as much
as the common sort, and showed what it could do for his country.
Since then King Cotton has been the money maker of the Nile valley,
the great White Pharaoh whom the modern Egyptians worship. He
has the majority of the Nile farmers in his employ and pays them
royally. He has rolled up a wave of prosperity that has engulfed the
Nile valley from the Mediterranean to the cataracts and the
prospects are that he will continue to make the country richer from
year to year. The yield is steadily increasing and with the improved
irrigation methods it will soon be greater than ever. From 1895 to
1900 its average annual value was only forty-five million dollars; but
after the Aswan Dam was completed it jumped to double that sum.
Though cotton is the big cash crop of Egypt, small flocks of sheep are kept on
many of the farms and the women spin the wool for the use of the family.
Sugar is Egypt’s crop of second importance. Heavy investments of French and
British capital in the Egyptian industry were first made when political troubles
curtailed Cuba’s production.

The greater part of Upper and Lower Egypt can be made to grow
cotton, and cotton plantations may eventually cover over five million
five hundred thousand acres. If only fifty per cent. of this area is
annually put into cotton it will produce upward of two million bales
per annum, or more than one sixth as much as the present cotton
crop of the world. In addition to this, there might be a further increase
by putting water into some of the oases that lie in the valley of the
Nile outside the river bottom, and also by draining the great lakes
about Alexandria and in other parts of the lower delta.
Egypt has already risen to a high place among the world’s cotton
countries. The United States stands first, British India second, and
Egypt third. Yet Egypt grows more of this staple for its size and the
area planted than any other country on the globe. Its average yield is
around four hundred and fifty pounds per acre, which is far in excess
of ours. Our Department of Agriculture says that our average is only
one hundred and ninety pounds per acre, although we have, of
course, many acres which produce five hundred pounds and more.
It is, however, because of its quality rather than its quantity that
Egyptian cotton holds such a commanding position in the world’s
markets. Cotton-manufacturing countries must depend on Egypt for
their chief supply of long-staple fibre. There are some kinds that sell
for double the amount our product brings. It is, in fact, the best cotton
grown with the exception of the Sea Island raised on the islands off
the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. The Sea Island cotton has
a rather longer fibre than the Egyptian. The latter is usually brown in
colour and is noted for its silkiness, which makes it valuable for
manufacturing mercerized goods. We import an enormous quantity
of it to mix with our cotton, and we have used the Egyptian seed to
develop a species known as American-Egyptian, which possesses
the virtues of both kinds.
There is a great difference in the varieties raised, according to the
part of the Nile valley from which each kind comes. The best cotton
grows in the delta, which produces more than four fifths of the
output.
A trip through the Nile cotton fields is an interesting one. The
scenes there are not in the least like those of our Southern states.
Much of the crop is raised on small farms and every field is marked
out with little canals into which the water is introduced from time to
time. There are no great farm houses in the landscape and no barns.
The people live in mud villages from which they go out to work in the
fields. They use odd animals for ploughing and harrowing and the
crop is handled in a different way from ours.
Let me give you a few of the pictures I have seen while travelling
through the country. Take a look over the delta. It is a wide expanse
of green, spotted here and there with white patches. The green
consists of alfalfa, Indian corn, or beans. The white is cotton,
stretching out before me as far as my eye can follow it.
Here is a field where the lint has been gathered. The earth is
black, with windrows of dry stalks running across it. Every stalk has
been pulled out by the roots and piled up. Farther on we see another
field in which the stalks have been tied into bundles. They will be
sold as fuel and will produce a full ton of dry wood to the acre. There
are no forests in Egypt, where all sorts of fuel are scarce. The stalks
from one acre will sell for two dollars or more. They are used for
cooking, for the farm engines on the larger plantations, and even for
running the machinery of the ginning establishments. In that village
over there one may see great bundles of them stored away on the
flat roofs of the houses. Corn fodder is piled up beside them, the
leaves having been torn off for stock feed. A queer country this,
where the people keep their wood piles on their roofs!
In that field over there they are picking cotton. There are scores of
little Egyptian boys and girls bending their dark brown faces above
the white bolls. The boys for the most part wear blue gowns and dirty
white skullcaps, though some are almost naked. The little girls have
cloths over their heads. All are barefooted. They are picking the fibre
in baskets and are paid so much per hundred pounds. A boy will
gather thirty or forty pounds in a day and does well if he earns as
much as ten cents.
The first picking begins in September. After that the land is
watered, and a second picking takes place in October. There is a
third in November, the soil being irrigated between times. The first
and second pickings, which yield the best fibre, are kept apart from
the third and sold separately.
After the cotton is picked it is put into great bags and loaded upon
camels. They are loading four in that field at the side of the road. The
camels lie flat on the ground, with their long necks stretched out.
Two bags, which together weigh about six hundred pounds, make a
load for each beast. Every bag is as long and wide as the mattress
of a single bed and about four feet thick. Listen to the groans of the
camels as the freight is piled on. There is one actually weeping. We
can see the tears run down his cheeks.
Now watch the awkward beasts get up. Each rises back end first,
the bags swaying to and fro as he does so. How angry he is! He
goes off with his lower lip hanging down, grumbling and groaning like
a spoiled child. The camels make queer figures as they travel. The
bags on each side their backs reach almost to the ground, so that
the lumbering creatures seem to be walking on six legs apiece.
Looking down the road, we see long caravans of camels loaded
with bales, while on the other side of that little canal is a small drove
of donkeys bringing in cotton. Each donkey is hidden by a bag that
completely covers its back and hides all but its little legs.
In these ways the crop is brought to the railroad stations and to the
boats on the canals. The boats go from one little waterway to
another until they come into the Mahmudiyeh Canal, and thence to
Alexandria. During the harvesting season the railroads are filled with
cotton trains. Some of the cotton has been ginned and baled upon
the plantations, and the rest is in the seed to be ginned at
Alexandria. There are ginning establishments also at the larger
cotton markets of the interior. Many of them are run by steam and
have as up-to-date machinery as we have. At these gins the seed is
carefully saved and shipped to Alexandria by rail or by boat.
The Nile bridge swings back to let through the native boats sailing down to
Alexandria with cargoes of cotton and sugar grown on the irrigated lands farther
upstream.
A rainless country, Egypt must dip up most of its water from the Nile, usually by
the crude methods of thousands of years ago. Here an ox is turning the creaking
sakieh, a wheel with jars fastened to its rim.

Egypt is a land that resists change, where even the native ox, despite the
frequent importation of foreign breeds, has the same features as are found in the
picture writings of ancient times. He is a cousin of the zebu.
The Egyptians put more work on their crop than our Southern
farmers do. In the first place, the land has to be ploughed with
camels or buffaloes and prepared for the planting. It must be divided
into basins, each walled around so that it will hold water, and inside
each basin little canals are so arranged that the water will run in and
out through every row. The whole field is cut up into these beds,
ranging in size from twenty-four to seventy-five feet square.
The cotton plants are from fourteen to twenty inches apart and set
in rows thirty-five inches from each other. It takes a little more than a
bushel of seed to the acre. The seeds are soaked in water before
planting, any which rise to the surface being thrown away. The
planting is done by men and boys at a cost of something like a dollar
an acre. The seeds soon sprout and the plants appear in ten or
twelve days. They are thinned by hand and water is let in upon them,
the farmers taking care not to give them too much. The plants are
frequently hoed and have water every week or so, almost to the time
of picking. The planting is usually done in the month of March, and,
as I have said, the first picking begins along in September.
I have been told that cotton, as it is grown here, exhausts the soil
and that the people injure the staple and reduce the yield by
overcropping. It was formerly planted on the same ground only every
third year, the ground being used in the interval for other crops or
allowed to lie fallow. At present some of the cotton fields are worked
every year and others two years out of three. On most of the farms
cotton is planted every other year, whereas the authorities say that in
order to have a good yield not more than forty per cent. of a man’s
farm should be kept to this crop from year to year. Just as in our
Southern states, a year of high cotton prices is likely to lead to
overcropping and reduced profits, and vice versa. Another trouble in
Egypt, and one which it would seem impossible to get around, is the
fact that cotton is practically the only farm crop. This puts the
fellaheen more or less at the mercy of fluctuating prices and
changing business conditions; so that, like our cotton farmers of the
South, they have their lean years and their fat years.
Egypt also has had a lot of trouble with the pink boll weevil. This
pestiferous cotton worm, which is to be found all along the valley of

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