100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

72 Some Emotions May be Universal

Considering how important emotions are in our everyday life, there’s not as much research on them as you might think. Scientists studying emotions distinguish them from moods and attitudes:

• Emotions have physiological correlates, are expressed physically (through gestures, facial expressions, and so on), result from a specific event, and often lead to an action.

• Moods last longer than emotions, perhaps a day or two. They may not be expressed physically and may not come from a specific event.

• Attitudes have a ...