How many emotions are there? There are dozens, including anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear, frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, disgust, happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love, pride, surprise, and sadness. Numerous researchers have tried to limit them to a fundamental set.5 Other scholars argue that it makes no sense to think in terms of “basic” emotions, because even emotions we rarely experience, such as shock, can have a powerful effect on us.6 It’s unlikely psychologists or philosophers will ever completely agree on a set of basic emotions, or even on whether there is such a thing. Still, many researchers agree on six universal emotions—anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise. We sometimes mistake happiness for surprise, but rarely do we confuse happiness and disgust.

Psychologists have tried to identify basic emotions by studying how we express them. Of our myriad ways of expressing emotions, facial expressions have proved one of the most difficult to interpret.7 One problem is that some emotions are too complex to be easily represented on our faces. Second, people may not interpret emotions from vocalizations (such as sighs or screams) the same way across cultures. One study found that while vocalizations conveyed meaning in all cultures, the specific emotions people perceived varied. For example, Himba participants (from northwestern Namibia) did not agree with Western participants that crying meant sadness or a growl meant anger.8 Lastly, cultures have norms that govern emotional expression, so the way we experience an emotion isn’t always the same as the way we show it. For example, people in the Middle East and the United States recognize a smile as indicating happiness, but in the Middle East, a smile is also often interpreted as a sign of sexual attraction, so women have learned not to smile at men.

Cultural differences regarding emotions can be apparent between countries that are individualistic and collectivistic—broad terms that describe the general outlook of people in a society. Individualistic countries are those in which people see themselves as independent and desire personal goals and personal control. Individualistic values are present in North America and Western Europe, for example. Collectivistic countries are those in which people see themselves as interdependent and seek community and group goals. Collectivistic values are found in Asia, Africa, and South America, for example.9 For this application, we find that in collectivist countries, people are more likely to believe another’s emotional displays are connected to their personal relationship, while people in individualistic cultures don’t think others’ emotional expressions are directed at them.

Researchers have been studying what are called moral emotions; that is, emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgment of the situation that evokes them. Examples of moral emotions include sympathy for the suffering of others, guilt about our own immoral behavior, anger about injustice done to others, and contempt for those who behave unethically.

Another example is the disgust we feel about violations of moral norms, called moral disgust. Moral disgust is different from disgust. Say you stepped in cow dung by mistake—you might feel disgusted by it, but not moral disgust—you probably wouldn’t make a moral judgment. In contrast, say you watched a video of a police officer making a sexist or racist slur. You might feel disgusted in a different way because it offends your sense of right and wrong. In fact, you might feel a variety of emotions based on your moral judgment of the situation.10

Emotions can be fleeting, but moods can endure... for quite a while. As a first step toward studying the effect of moods and emotions in the workplace, we classify emotions into two categories: positive and negative. Positive emotions—such as joy and gratitude—express a favorable evaluation or feeling. Negative emotions—such as anger and guilt—express the opposite. Keep in mind that emotions can’t be neutral. Being neutral is being nonemotional.11

The two categories of emotions represent overall mood states, known as positive and negative affect (see Exhibit 4-2). We can think of positive affect as a mood dimension consisting of positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, and elation at the high end (high positive affect) and boredom, depression, and fatigue at the low end (low positive affect, or lack of positive affect). Negative affect is a mood dimension consisting of nervousness, stress, and anxiety at the high end (high negative affect) and contentedness, calmness, and serenity at the low end (low negative affect, or lack of negative affect). While we rarely experience both positive and negative affect at the same time, over time people do differ in how much they experience of each. Some people (we might call them emotional or intense) may experience quite a bit of high positive and high negative affect over, say, a week’s time. Others (we might call them unemotional or phlegmatic) experience little of either. And still others may experience one much more predominately than the other.

As if it weren’t complex enough to consider the many distinct emotions and moods a person might identify, the reality is that we each experience moods and emotions differently. For most people, positive moods are somewhat more common than negative moods. Indeed, research finds a positivity offset, meaning that at zero input (when nothing in particular is going on), most individuals experience a mildly positive mood.12 This appears to be true for employees in a wide range of job settings. For example, one study of customer-service representatives in a British call center revealed that people reported experiencing positive moods 58 percent of the time, despite the stressful environment.13 Another research finding is that negative emotions lead to negative moods.

There is much to be learned in exploring cultural differences. Some cultures embrace negative emotions, such as Japan and Russia, while others emphasize positive emotions and expressions, such as Mexico and Brazil.14 There may also be a difference in the value of negative emotions between collectivist and individualist countries, and this difference may be the reason negative emotions are less detrimental to the health of Japanese than Americans.15 For example, the Chinese consider negative emotions—while not always pleasant—as potentially more useful and constructive than do Americans.

Emotions may be a mystery, but they can be critical to an effectively functioning workplace. For example, employees with more positive emotions demonstrate higher performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB; see Chapter 1), less turnover and counterproductive work behavior (CWB; see Chapter 3), particularly when they feel supported by their organizations in their effort to do well in their jobs.16 Gratefulness and awe have also been shown to positively predict OCB,17 which in turn increases trust and emotional expressions of concern.18 Let’s discuss two critical areas—rationality and ethicality—in which emotions can enhance performance.