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University of California Press

About the Book

The Science of Emotion introduces students and interested readers to how emotions are generated, expressed, regulated, and experienced across cultures and time—and how psychologists and other brain and behavioral scientists study them. This book will familiarize aspiring neuroscientists, social psychologists, and cognitive scientists with tools for mapping behavior to internal states—and internal states to patterns of brain activity. In addition, this book:

  • Guides readers through key domains: fear, empathy and altruism, social emotions, attachment and rejection, happiness, and emotion regulation.
  • Foregrounds how emotions are elicited and measured, equipping readers to evaluate evidence, interpret results cautiously, and design stronger studies. 
  • Covers novel areas of emotion research and social life, such as human-AI interaction and emotional expression on social media.

This book offers a guide to a burgeoning field that is as rich and nuanced as the phenomena it describes.

About the Author

Hongbo Yu is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the director of the Yu Emotion Science (YES) Lab. His work has been published in numerous journals, including Nature Reviews Psychology and Journal of Neuroscience, and has been featured in Psychology Today, the Minds Matter podcast, and NBC News.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface                 

Chapter 1. Introduction to the Science of Emotion                 

Chapter 2. Methodology in the Science of Emotion               

Chapter 3. Fear: Anatomy of an Emotion

Chapter 4. Empathy and Altruism

Chapter 5. The Psychology and Neuroscience of Social Emotions

Chapter 6. Attachment and Social Rejection

Chapter 7. Happiness                

Chapter 8. Emotion Regulation: Strategies, Mechanisms, and Neural Basis        

Chapter 9. Expression of Emotion    

Chapter 10. Emotion and Other Cognitive Processes          

Chapter 11. Cross-Cultural Research on Emotion                  

Acknowledgments      

Index

Reviews

“This is the most accessible modern book on affective science. All the essentials are covered—emotion theories, fear conditioning, fMRI methods—as well as the most interesting subtopics, from empathy and altruism to social rejection to emotion regulation. This book will be a leading resource for any course on affective science.”—Ralph Adolphs, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology, California Institute of Technology, and coauthor of The Neuroscience of Emotion: A New Synthesis

“A rare interdisciplinary synthesis of emotion science, this book seamlessly integrates psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and cross-cultural research into a coherent framework. Rich in landmark studies and contemporary research, it illuminates the emotional mind with exceptional clarity while inspiring readers to think across disciplinary boundaries.”—Rachael E. Jack, Professor of Computational Social Cognition, Vanderbilt University, and past president of the Society for Affective Science

“Emotions are both powerful and puzzling. With this book, Yu warmly introduces us to what science can teach us about our emotions, where they come from, and what they’re for. Blending evolution, biology, and culture with cutting-edge research, The Science of Emotion is enlightening, useful, and a pleasure to read.”—Michael E. McCullough, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, and author of The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code and Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct