This sexual organization had several important implications: Jared Diamond, Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality (New York: Basic Books, 1997).
sexual monogamy was the most common sexual pattern: Helen Fisher, Anatomy of Love (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993).
In The Evolution of Cooperation: Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, (New York: Basic Books, 1984).
Built into the human organism, therefore, must be a set of mechanisms that reverse the cost-benefit analysis of giving: Sober and Wilson, Unto Others, chap. 1.
Jonathan Haidt has called this state elevation: J. Haidt and D. Keltner, “Appreciation of Beauty and Excellent (Awe, Wonder, Elevation),” in Character Strengths and Virtues, ed. Christopher Peterson and Martin E.P. Seligman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 537–51.
EMBARRASSMENT
On July 2, 1860, Eadweard Muybridge boarded a stagecoach in San Francisco: Rebecca Solnit, Rivers and Shadows (New York: Penguin, 2003).
At the time I began my research, the display of embarrassment was thought to be a sign of confusion and thwarted intention: The brilliant sociologist Erving Goffman was fascinated by embarrassment and described it as reflecting a state of confusion. He did, however, suggest that it was a critical signal of an individual’s commitment to the social order—an observation that would guide much of the work on embarrassment. Goffman, Interaction Rituaclass="underline" Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 97–112.
In a frenzied eighteen months at the University of Pennsylvania: Eadweard Muybridge, The Human Figure in Motion (New York: Dover, 1955).
That is the orienting function of the startle: S. S. Tomkins, “Affect Theory,” in Approaches to Emotion, 163–95.
the magnitude of the 250-millisecond startle response is a telling indicator of a person’s temperament, and in particular of the extent to which the person is anxious: There is now an extensive literature that relies on the magnitude of the startle response, most typically measured in terms of the intensity of the eyeblink, as an index of fear and negative emotion. Just as importantly, a person’s positive emotional disposition or current positive emotion tends to attenuate the startle response. P. J. Lang, “The Emotion Probe,” American Psychologist 50 (1995): 372–85; Lang, M. N. Bradley and B. N. Cuthbert, “Emotion, Attention, and the Startle Reflex,” Psychological Review 97 (1990): 377–95, and “Emotion, Motivation, and Anxiety: Brain Mechanisms and Psychophysiology,” Biological Psychiatry 44 (1998): 1248–63.
neurotic individuals make for more difficult marriages: Neuroticism is defined by elevated levels of tension, anxiety, worry, and self-doubt. As important as negative emotions are in certain contexts, their chronic occurrence has proven to be difficult for marriages. N. Bolger and E. A. Schilling, “Personality and the Problems of Everyday Life: The Role of Neuroticism in Exposure and Reactivity to Daily Stressors,” Journal of Personality 59 (1991): 355–86.
My first step was to embarrass people, a task that has given license to a more mischievous side of researchers’ imaginations: For reviews of studies of embarrassment, see R. S. Miller, “The Nature and Severity of Self-Reported Embarrassing Circumstances,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18 (1992): 190–98; D. Keltner and B. N. Buswell, “Embarrassment: Its Distinct Form and Appeasement Functions,” Psychological Bulletin 122 (1997): 250–70.
after eighteen months of age, they show embarrassment: M. Lewis, M. V. Sullivan, C. Stanger, and M. Weiss, “Self-Development and Self-Conscious Emotions,” Child Development 60 (1989): 146–56.
perhaps the most mortifying experiment: D. Shearn et al., “Facial Coloration and Temperature Responses in Blushing,” Psychophysiology 27 (1990): 687–93.
and one in line with Darwin-inspired analyses of emotional displays as involuntary, truthful signs: Ekman, “Facial Expression and Emotion” A. J. Fridlund, Human Facial Expression: An Evolutionary View (San Diego: Academic Press, 1994). D. Keltner and A. Kring, “Emotion, Social Function, and Psychopathology,” General Psychological Review 2 (1998): 320–42.
Consider the kiss: J. Foer, “The Kiss of Life,” The New York Times, February 14, 2006.
documented by: Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Human Ethology.
Frans de Waal has devoted thousands of hours to the study of what different primates: de Waal and van Roosmalen, “Reconciliation and Consolation.”
When I reviewed forty studies of appeasement and reconciliation processes across species: Keltner and Buswell, “Embarrassment: Its Distinct Form.”
the loss of body control (the prosaic fart or stumble): For one study that has characterized the different causes of embarrassment, see R. S. Miller, “The Nature and Severity of Self-Reported Embarrassing Circumstances,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18 (1992): 190–98.
I concentrated on young boys prone to violence: D. Keltner, T. Moffitt, and M. Stouthhamer-Loeber, “Facial Expressions of Emotion and Psychopathology in Adolescent Boys,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 104 (1995): 644–52.
Neuroscientist James Blair has followed up on this work on embarrassment and violence by studying “acquired sociopathy”: R. J. R. Blair and L. Cipolotti, “Impaired Social Response Reversaclass="underline" A Case of ‘Acquired Sociopathy,’” Brain 123 (2000): 1122–41.
Like J. S., Muybridge had damaged his orbitofrontal cortex, which might be thought of as a command center for the moral sentiments: Edmund T. Rolls, The Brain and Emotion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped part of the midbrain: Joseph LeDoux, The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
It receives information from the cingulate cortex: For a review, see R. J. Davidson, D. Pizzagalli, J. B. Nitschke, and N. H. Kalin, “Parsing the Subcomponents of Emotion and Disorders: Perspective from Affective Neuroscience,” in Handbook of Affective Sciences, 8–24.
Soft, velvety touch to the arm: E. T. Rolls, “The Orbitofrontal Cortex and Reward,” Cerebral Cortex 10 (2000): 284–94.
“He is fitful”: J. M. Harlow, “Recovery from the Passage of an Iron Bar through the Head,” History of Psychiatry 4 (1993): 274–81.
In research with Jennifer Beer: J. Beer et al., “The Regulatory Function of Self-Conscious Emotion: Insights from Patients with Orbitofrontal Damage,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85 (2003): 594–604.
They resembled psychopaths: R. J. R. Blair, R. L. Jones, F. Clark, and M. Smith, “The Psychopathic Individuaclass="underline" A Lack of Responsiveness to Distress Cues?” Psychophysiology 34, no. 2 (1997): 192–98.
“When man is born”: Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (New York: Penguin, 1963), Book II. LXXVI.
SMILE
Greek artisans: Agnus Trumble, A Brief History of the Smile (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 11–18.
What does the smile mean?: M. Frank, P. Ekman, and W. V. Friesen, “Behavioral Markers and Recognizability of the Smile of Enjoyment,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 64 (1993): 83–93; A. J. Fridlund, “Sociality of Solitary Smiling: Potentiation by an Implicit Audience,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 60 (1991): 229–40.