CPM Report No.: 08-197
By: Claudia Marinetti, Penny Moore, Pablo Lucas dos Anjos and Brian Parkinson
Date: August 29th 2008

Draft chapter to appear in the Humaine Handbook.

Introduction

In the unremitting complexity of social life, emotions play a key role in defining and regulating our
relationships with others and, more generally, with the environment surrounding us. Our emotional reactions to
other people influence how those others react to us, and to a certain extent how future encounters will develop.
At the same time, our own emotional behaviour is shaped by others’ thoughts and deeds. Although emotions
undeniably have personal and subjective aspects, they are usually experienced in a social context and acquire
their significance in relation to this context (see also the “Socially situated affective systems” chapter, WP7, in
this handbook). 

Accessible as:

• PDF