In the 1980’s Robert Plutchik began writing about his research on emotions and the outcomes of his study and analysis. He positioned that there are 8 primary emotions: Rage, Terror, Grief, Loathing, Amazement, Vigilance, Admiration, and Ecstasy. These further blend into anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy. As we move outward of the wheel, we find that the emotions are mixed or derivates, compounds of the primary emotions.

He also postulated that the reason for these emotions are two fold:

1) To communicate with the environment / others regards an intention or probable action

2) To increase one’s chance of survival in emergency situations

Do you agree that emotions can be effective messengers?