Most of us believe emotions are easy to recognise.

A frown means anger.
Tears mean sadness.
A trembling voice means fear.

But neuroscience tells a very different story.

Decades of research now suggest that emotions are not universal signals waiting to be detected. They are constructed experiences—shaped by our developmental history, the language we learn, and the cultural worlds we grow up in.

This view, most clearly articulated in the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett, changes how we understand emotion itself—and how we understand one another.

For years, psychology taught that certain facial expressions reliably signal specific emotions. But research has steadily dismantled that idea.

People do not scowl every time they feel angry. Sometimes they smile. Sometimes they go quiet. Sometimes their face shows very little at all. Even within the same person, emotional expression shifts across situations.

In some small-scale societies with little exposure to Western norms, people don’t interpret facial movements........

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