Emotion: Embodied Information About Physical and Social Resources

Monday, February 07, 2011

Gerald Clore

Professor
University of Virginia

Recent experiments find that visual perception is regulated by the availability of bodily resources for action. In addition, emotion also affects visual perception. On this basis, I outline an account in which emotions reflect concerns about physical and social resources. Included is the idea that emotions provide embodied information about the state and fate of resources, motivate behavior to acquire, maintain, and defend resources, and signal the urgency of relevant actions. This information in turn affects perceptions of spatial layout. Thus, both emotion and perception may be productively seen as embodied reflections of the available and required resources for coping with the world.