Pixar's "Inside Out" Understands Emotions

Categories: Emotions, Brain Science

All images Copyright Disney. All rights reserved. Disney Movies.

The most recent film release from Pixar Studios, Inside Out, is an animated study of emotion - their bothersome presence as well as their value to inform. All too often we interpret emotions such as sadness or fear as something to be avoided, as something negative. But the folks at Pixar through animated storytelling provide a view of our emotions that reveal them as helpful to and organizers of our thinking, even essential to our moral code and social behaviors. The filmakers consulted with two eminent experts on emotions (Paul Ekman and Dacher Keltner) and as a result, most of what they portray in the movie is an accurate representation of how our emotions operate. Being a Hollywood film, there are embellishments and some things made up (spoiler alert: Imagination Land).

We offer a series of articles about the film that clarify the role of emotions and which concepts are made up and which are accurate. Hats off to Pixar for helping many people see the benefits and richness of the range of human emotions, from joy through anger, sadness, disgust and fear.

• Business Insider: 'Inside Out' finally made me understand the one thing my therapist has been trying to teach me for 15 years by Caroline Moss
• Business Insider: Pixar's 'Inside Out' is a surprisingly accurate look at human psychology — here's what it gets right and wrong by Chris Weller
  
• Business Insider: The scientists behind 'Inside Out' explain one big thing the movie gets right that most people get wrong by Lauren F Friedman
• New York Times Sunday Review: The Science of ‘Inside Out’ by Dacher Keltner and Paul Ekman
  

JOY and SADNESS