<p>The answer would be no. To go along with the comments babies feel emotions however do not know words. As they grow adults help them organize their emotions for example a baby cries with frustration and anger because they may be hungry as you get older you have learned how to deal with that experience. As it is impossible to feel any emotion without having a thought first, emotions stem from what we are thinking which would be mostly concepts we don't think in random words. Therefore if we like to be happy we will think about things or do things that make us such. We are made to feel a wide range of emotions and they come and go. Knowing a word is not going to help someone know happiness better. Learning to control thoughts would be much more helpful. Just as a baby feels all emotions it does not yet understand them. What good would a huge vocabulary be if we could not put together concepts.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-19T21:42:01.423Z
Any sources on this?
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-20T19:12:00.613Z
Because I disagree with a lot of what you say. :P  Words help crystallize knowledge.  They make it more discrete.  This seems like it would aid in retrieval of emotional episodes... (i.e., the answer to the question is yes--or at least, probably).
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T17:20:25.347Z
I guess maybe I misunderstand what you're saying what exactly do you disagree with?I am not knocking a good vocabulary which definitely helps in a deeper understanding. Knowing the word happiness does not necessarily mean every person that knows this word has experienced happiness to the same degree vs a tribe as you put it that does not have a word for happiness. Logically each person probably has experienced a different degree of happiness no more or less then a highly educated American.
Pj Sparkles
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T19:15:18.483Z
If you don't have a word for a concept, you're much less likely to deploy that concept.  So if you have the word "happy," then you're more likely to deploy the *happy* concept than some concept you don't have a word for.  Indeed, most concepts rely on there being a word, and words are very significant in concept formation.  So having the word "happy" at all makes it more likely that you'll have the *happy* concept--and therefore the **happy** emotion.
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-19T19:07:00.390Z
2016-06-19T19:07:00.390Z
Pj Sparkles
<p>I am aware of the Frequency Illusion which makes it more likely for us to notice a new word if we just heard about it recently, but I was wondering if this is true for emotions as well.</p>

<p>Logically, I assume it would be yes because you are more aware about your emotions and hence more likely to notice that you are experiencing the emotion. Have there been any conclusive studies done on this subject?</p>

<p>I don't know much about linguistics but if, say, a certain isolated tribe has not come up with a word for "happiness", would they ever feel happiness in the same way that we do, or feel it less frequently?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-09T02:08:32.547Z
There hasn't been any research looking at this specific question, but there is good reason to believe it's true.  We use prior knowledge about emotion concepts (words, but not always words), combined with current sensory input, to construct current emotional experience.  So if you know the concept "fear," you can deploy it in a given situation (by deploying it,  you feel the emotion fear).  However, if there is no emotion concept to deploy, then you do not feel that emotion (e.g., you don't feel *gluckshmerz* if you don't have that concept).
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-09T06:41:49.800Z
Aren't emotions just releases of neurotransmitters after/during a particular event? A child may not know the words happy but can still smile and feel content right? Or, an american may not know the word gluckschmerz, but may still smile when someone gets hurt. That why Americans funniest home videos exist. Almost all movies are gluckschmerz (enjoying other peoples suffering). I do think it's possible to experience an emotion but, indeed, not being able to verbalize the feeling.
Robin Kramer-ten Have
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-09T13:35:52.607Z
@RobinKramer  Re: your first question, not quite. Emotions, psychologically speaking, are (cognitive) conceptualizations of your affect in a context.  Affect is your feelings of (1) pleasantness or unpleasantness and (2) activation or deactivation.  You can feel affect (e.g., pleasant) without feeling an emotion (e.g., happiness). Indeed, you don't need *words* to feel an emotion, but you do need the *concept*.
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-09T14:47:39.010Z
@mrt I have never heard of gluckshmerz (and schadenfreude) before I read your comment and honestly, I _have_ felt those emotions before. It's just that most of those moments were probably forgettable because I didn't have a word to categorize them under. I don't know how much language plays a role in memory but if you don't have a word for an emotion, does that make you less likely to remember it and thus in hindsight, make you biased to think you have felt it less often?
Clyde Noronha
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-09T19:56:49.883Z
@Zerseus  Well, there could be a couple things going on.  The first is potentially memory bias in how you experienced emotions in the past.  We know that episodic recall of emotional experience is weak (see [here](http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayrecord&uid=2002-18663-004)), and instead you're likely relying on semantic memory (which includes these new emotion words) to construct past experience.  The alternative is that you had those emotion concepts, but you didn't have words for them.  Words are not necessary, but they are highly significant in emotion concept formation.
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-09T20:01:34.500Z
@Zerseus  And, indeed, not having a word for an emotion makes you less likely to remember the experience.  Emotion concepts help to organize a heterogeneous population of instances and sort of discretize conscious experience.  In that way, they make chunks in the flow of your conscious experience more salient, communicable, discrete, and consequently memorable.
mrt
<emotion><language><bias><linguistics>
Does knowing a word for an emotion cause a person to feel the emotion more frequently?
Clyde Noronha
# Does knowing a word for an emotion cause a person to feel the emotion more frequently?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-06-08)

I am aware of the Frequency Illusion which makes it more likely for us to notice a new word if we just heard about it recently, but I was wondering if this is true for emotions as well.

Logically, I assume it would be yes because you are more aware about your emotions and hence more likely to notice that you are experiencing the emotion. Have there been any conclusive studies done on this subject?

I don't know much about linguistics but if, say, a certain isolated tribe has not come up with a word for "happiness", would they ever feel happiness in the same way that we do, or feel it less frequently?

**Tags:** emotion, language, bias, linguistics

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There hasn't been any research looking at this specific question, but there is good reason to believe it's true.  We use prior knowledge about emotion concepts (words, but not always words), combined with current sensory input, to construct current emotional experience.  So if you know the concept "fear," you can deploy it in a given situation (by deploying it,  you feel the emotion fear).  However, if there is no emotion concept to deploy, then you do not feel that emotion (e.g., you don't feel *gluckshmerz* if you don't have that concept).  
> **username_2**: Aren't emotions just releases of neurotransmitters after/during a particular event? A child may not know the words happy but can still smile and feel content right? Or, an american may not know the word gluckschmerz, but may still smile when someone gets hurt. That why Americans funniest home videos exist. Almost all movies are gluckschmerz (enjoying other peoples suffering). I do think it's possible to experience an emotion but, indeed, not being able to verbalize the feeling.  
> **username_1**: @RobinKramer  Re: your first question, not quite. Emotions, psychologically speaking, are (cognitive) conceptualizations of your affect in a context.  Affect is your feelings of (1) pleasantness or unpleasantness and (2) activation or deactivation.  You can feel affect (e.g., pleasant) without feeling an emotion (e.g., happiness). Indeed, you don't need *words* to feel an emotion, but you do need the *concept*.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I have never heard of gluckshmerz (and schadenfreude) before I read your comment and honestly, I _have_ felt those emotions before. It's just that most of those moments were probably forgettable because I didn't have a word to categorize them under. I don't know how much language plays a role in memory but if you don't have a word for an emotion, does that make you less likely to remember it and thus in hindsight, make you biased to think you have felt it less often?  
> **username_1**: @Zerseus  Well, there could be a couple things going on.  The first is potentially memory bias in how you experienced emotions in the past.  We know that episodic recall of emotional experience is weak (see [here](http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayrecord&uid=2002-18663-004)), and instead you're likely relying on semantic memory (which includes these new emotion words) to construct past experience.  The alternative is that you had those emotion concepts, but you didn't have words for them.  Words are not necessary, but they are highly significant in emotion concept formation.  
> **username_1**: @Zerseus  And, indeed, not having a word for an emotion makes you less likely to remember the experience.  Emotion concepts help to organize a heterogeneous population of instances and sort of discretize conscious experience.  In that way, they make chunks in the flow of your conscious experience more salient, communicable, discrete, and consequently memorable.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-06-19. Score: 2

The answer would be no. To go along with the comments babies feel emotions however do not know words. As they grow adults help them organize their emotions for example a baby cries with frustration and anger because they may be hungry as you get older you have learned how to deal with that experience. As it is impossible to feel any emotion without having a thought first, emotions stem from what we are thinking which would be mostly concepts we don't think in random words. Therefore if we like to be happy we will think about things or do things that make us such. We are made to feel a wide range of emotions and they come and go. Knowing a word is not going to help someone know happiness better. Learning to control thoughts would be much more helpful. Just as a baby feels all emotions it does not yet understand them. What good would a huge vocabulary be if we could not put together concepts.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Any sources on this?  
> **username_1**: Because I disagree with a lot of what you say. :P  Words help crystallize knowledge.  They make it more discrete.  This seems like it would aid in retrieval of emotional episodes... (i.e., the answer to the question is yes--or at least, probably).  
> **username_3**: I guess maybe I misunderstand what you're saying what exactly do you disagree with?I am not knocking a good vocabulary which definitely helps in a deeper understanding. Knowing the word happiness does not necessarily mean every person that knows this word has experienced happiness to the same degree vs a tribe as you put it that does not have a word for happiness. Logically each person probably has experienced a different degree of happiness no more or less then a highly educated American.  
> **username_1**: If you don't have a word for a concept, you're much less likely to deploy that concept.  So if you have the word "happy," then you're more likely to deploy the *happy* concept than some concept you don't have a word for.  Indeed, most concepts rely on there being a word, and words are very significant in concept formation.  So having the word "happy" at all makes it more likely that you'll have the *happy* concept--and therefore the **happy** emotion.  

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