Abstract

A major theme of recent research on emotion has been the recognition of the intimate connections between feeling and thinking. Emotions have long been conceived of as arising from a functionally separate system that is at best orthogonal to or, more likely, at odds with effective reasoning and intellectual functioning. This view has been supplanted by an emerging acknowledgment of the elaborately coordinated interactions and, indeed, indispensable collaboration between the cognitive and affective systems (e.g., Clore, Schwarz, & Conway, 1994; Damasio, 1994; Frijda, 1986; Zajonc & Markus, 1984). For example, Damasio (1994; see also Adolphs & Damasio, chap. 2, this volume) reports compelling evidence of the dysfunctions that arise when subjective feelings are no longer available to guide reactions, dysfunctions that are especially pronounced in the sphere of social functioning. As he notes, the “social domain is the one closest to our destiny and the one which involves the greatest uncertainty and complexity” (Damasio, 1994, p. 169), so it is perhaps not too surprising that it is in this domain that we most urgently need guidance from our “gut reactions” and subjective feelings.