While emotions can be displayed and evoked through different mechanisms in different organisms there are common elements to emotions that can be identified across all emotional animals. The purpose of emotions is an evolutionary survival response enabling the organism to survive when confronted by environmental challenges. They are equally applicable to all animals as they are to human beings.Įmotions evolved differently in different species and may be expressed differently between those species. He posited 10 points with regard to emotion:Įmotions are found at all evolutionary levels of species. Copyright terms and licence: Public Domain. He argued that the primary emotions are an evolutionary development and that the response to each such emotion is the one that is likely to deliver the highest level of survival possibility.Īuthor/Copyright holder: Machine Elf 1735.

Robert Plutchik devised the psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion and this helps categorize emotions into primary emotions and the responses to them. Plutchik’s Psycho-evolutionary Theory of Emotion He held a doctorate degree as well as positions at the professorial level at two respected universities. Before he passed away in 2006 he was responsible for 8 books (and editing another 7), nearly 300 articles, and 45 chapters in emotional research as a psychologist. Robert Plutchik, was a thought leader in the study of emotions. The corner stone of emotional design is the idea that if you can elicit strong emotions in your users – you can use those emotions to either create loyalty or to drive a customer to take action. Products that they like, on the other hand, quickly slip from the user’s mind and are replaced in time with products that are liked better or even loved.

Products that people love are products that people use over and over again. One way of understanding emotions is Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions – this may help you deliver better experiences to your users when designing products. Designs which tap into the user’s emotions are considered to do more than just respond to their stated needs and provide a greater level of user experience. Emotional design is a big buzz word within the UX community.

The emotion color wheel