Are Emotions and Feelings the Same?

There is widespread confusion about whether emotions and feelings are the same. The short answer is that they are NOT the same.  Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has written extensively on this topic. (For anyone interested in the role of emotions and feelings, I strongly recommend his excellent book, Descartes' Error.)

According to Damasio, emotions are the complex reactions of the body to external stimuli. Emotions  are the inborn responses that are present in the same way for all human beings. The heart may speed up, the mouth may become dry, the muscles may contract. These complex physical reactions are automatic and unconscious. Emotions are the body's response to threats and opportunities: they are all about survival. Feelings occur after we become aware in our brains of such physical changes. If we notice, for example, that our heart is now racing, our mouth is completely dry, and that various muscles are contracted, we will then experience/interpret that as fear.

Another way to distinguish between emotion and feeling is to say that emotions are inborn, public, and common to all humans. Feelings, on the other hand, are unique and personal responses to inborn emotion based on life experiences. While we may all have the same complex set of body reactions (emotions),  individuals will has unique responses (feelings) to those complex set of body reactions. This explains why some people can face a terrifying situation and yet their individually-constructed  feelings still allows them to function while others will be frozen or paralyzed into inaction. All human emotions arise from the same evolutionary process but each person shapes and creates a unique set of feelings to each emotion.

The psychologist William James predicted and recognized this difference in the late 1800's. Most people at that time would have said that when you see a bear in front of you, you feel fear and then you run. William James correctly assessed that when you see a bear in front of you run and then feel fear.  The feeling, the individual and unique response, comes afterwards. What he was pointing out was that the EMOTION created the running behavior and then we recognized the internal FEELING of fear when we noticed what was happening inside (the running, heart racing, fast breathing, dry mouth).  But it was the emotion (inborn, automatic, unconscious) that originated the action of running. This is a reversal of what we normally think happens.

This is evolution at its finest. It gets us out of trouble by the shortest circuit possible. Our conscious awareness in times of extreme danger is an afterthought – – we are already doing what is necessary for survival.