My research lab sits about a mile from where several bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon in 2013. The surviving bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Chechnya, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.
Moj istraživački laboratorij udaljen je 1,5 km od mjesta bombardiranog tijekom Bostonskog maratona 2013. Preživjeli napadač, Dzhokar Tsarnaev iz Čečenije, optužen je, proglašen krivim i osuđen na smrt.
Now, when a jury has to make the decision between life in prison and the death penalty, they base their decision largely on whether or not the defendant feels remorseful for his actions. Tsarnaev spoke words of apology, but when jurors looked at his face, all they saw was a stone-faced stare. Now, Tsarnaev is guilty, there's no doubt about that. He murdered and maimed innocent people, and I'm not here to debate that. My heart goes out to all the people who suffered. But as a scientist, I have to tell you that jurors do not and cannot detect remorse or any other emotion in anybody ever. Neither can I, and neither can you, and that's because emotions are not what we think they are. They are not universally expressed and recognized. They are not hardwired brain reactions that are uncontrollable. We have misunderstood the nature of emotion for a very long time, and understanding what emotions really are has important consequences for all of us.
Kada porota mora odlučiti između kazne doživotnog zatvora i smrtne kazne, odluku uvelike temelje na tome pokazuje li optuženik osjećaj žaljenja zbog počinjenoga. Tsarnaev je izgovorio riječi žaljenja, no, kada su ga porotnici pogledali u lice, vidjeli su samo okamenjeni pogled u prazno. Tsarnaev je, nesumnjivo, kriv. Ubio je i osakatio nevine ljude i ja nisam ovdje kako bih to osporavala. Suosjećam sa svim žrtvama. No, kao znanstvenica, moram reći da porotnici nikad ne prepoznaju niti mogu prepoznati kajanje niti bilo koju drugu emociju. To ne mogu ni ja, a ni vi, i to zato što emocije nisu ono što mislimo da jesu. One nisu nešto što univerzalno izražavamo i prepoznajemo. One nisu urođene reakcije mozga koje se ne mogu obuzdati. Pogrešno smo shvaćali prirodu emocija jako dugo i razumijevanje emocija značajno će se odraziti na sve nas.
I have studied emotions as a scientist for the past 25 years, and in my lab, we have probed human faces by measuring electrical signals that cause your facial muscles to contract to make facial expressions. We have scrutinized the human body in emotion. We have analyzed hundreds of physiology studies involving thousands of test subjects. We've scanned hundreds of brains, and examined every brain imaging study on emotion that has been published in the past 20 years. And the results of all of this research are overwhelmingly consistent. It may feel to you like your emotions are hardwired and they just trigger and happen to you, but they don't. You might believe that your brain is prewired with emotion circuits, that you're born with emotion circuits, but you're not. In fact, none of us in this room have emotion circuits in our brain. In fact, no brain on this planet contains emotion circuits.
Kao znanstvenica proučavam emocije posljednjih 25 godina, u laboratoriju smo ispitivali lica mjerenjem električnih signala koji izazivaju kontrakcije mišića lica, a time i određene izraze lica. Proučavali smo ljudsko tijelo dok proživljava emocije. Analizirali smo stotine fizioloških studija s tisućama ispitanika. Skenirali smo na stotine mozgova, proučili sve studije emocija temeljene na snimkama mozga koje su objavljene tijekom posljednjih 20 godina. Svi su rezultati ovog istraživanja nevjerojatno dosljedni. Možda imate osjećaj da su vaše emocije programirane, jednom izazvane one vam se događaju, no to nije točno. Možda mislite da je vaš mozak opremljen emocionalnim sklopom, da ste rođeni sa sklopom emocija, ali niste. Nitko od nas, zapravo, nema emocionalni sklop u mozgu. Nijedan mozak na svijetu ne sadrži emocionalni sklop.
So what are emotions, really? Well, strap on your seat belt, because ... emotions are guesses. They are guesses that your brain constructs in the moment where billions of brain cells are working together, and you have more control over those guesses than you might imagine that you do.
Što su, zapravo, emocije? Pripremite se, jer... Emocije su pretpostavke. Pretpostavke koje vaš mozak stvori u trenutku kada milijarde moždanih stanica surađuju, a vi možete imati veću kontrolu nad tim pretpostavkama nego što mislite.
Now, if that sounds preposterous to you, or, you know, kind of crazy, I'm right there with you, because frankly, if I hadn't seen the evidence for myself, decades of evidence for myself, I am fairly sure that I wouldn't believe it either. But the bottom line is that emotions are not built into your brain at birth. They are just built.
Ako vam to zvuči apsurdno, pomalo ludo, razumijem, jer iskreno, da nisam svojim očima vidjela dokaze, desetljeća dokaza, zasigurno ni ja ne bih vjerovala. No, bit je da emocije nisu ugrađene u vaš mozak pri rođenju. One se jednostavno grade.
To see what I mean, have a look at this. Right now, your brain is working like crazy. Your neurons are firing like mad trying to make meaning out of this so that you see something other than black and white blobs. Your brain is sifting through a lifetime of experience, making thousands of guesses at the same time, weighing the probabilities, trying to answer the question, "What is this most like?" not "What is it?" but "What is this most like in my past experience?" And this is all happening in the blink of an eye. Now if your brain is still struggling to find a good match and you still see black and white blobs, then you are in a state called "experiential blindness," and I am going to cure you of your blindness. This is my favorite part. Are you ready to be cured?
Kako biste me razumjeli, pogledajte ovo. Vaš mozak sada radi kao lud. Vaši neuroni rade pokušavajući stvoriti smisao ovoga, kako biste vidjeli nešto osim crnih i bijelih mrlja. Vaš mozak prosijava životna iskustva istovremeno stvarajući tisuće pretpostavki, odvagujući vjerojatnosti, pokušavajući odgovoriti na pitanje, "Čemo je ovo najviše nalik?", ne "Što je to?", nego "Kojem od mojih prošlih iskustava ovo najviše nalikuje?" Sve se to odvija doslovno u trenu. Ako vaš mozak ne može pronaći ništa slično ovome i još vidite crne i bijele mrlje, nalazite se u stanju zvanom "iskustvena sljepoća," a ja ću izliječiti vašu sljepoću. Ovo je moj omiljeni dio. Želite li izlječenje?
(Cheers)
(Uzvici odobravanja)
All right. Here we go.
U redu. Krećemo.
(Gasps)
(Uzdasi)
All right. So now many of you see a snake, and why is that? Because as your brain is sifting through your past experience, there's new knowledge there, the knowledge that came from the photograph. And what's really cool is that that knowledge which you just acquired moments ago is changing how you experience these blobs right now. So your brain is constructing the image of a snake where there is no snake, and this kind of a hallucination is what neuroscientists like me call "predictions." Predictions are basically the way your brain works. It's business as usual for your brain. Predictions are the basis of every experience that you have. They are the basis of every action that you take. In fact, predictions are what allow you to understand the words that I'm speaking as they come out of my --
Dobro. Mnogi vide zmiju, zašto? Dok vaš mozak prosijava prošla iskustva, dolazi do novog saznanja, saznanja koje dolazi od fotografije. Uistinu je zanimljivo da saznanje do kojeg ste došli prije nekoliko trenutaka mijenja kako sada vidite te mrlje. Vaš mozak stvara sliku zmije, ondje gdje zmije nema i ta vrsta halucinacije ono je što neuroznanstvenici poput mene nazivaju "predviđanjima". Vaš mozak funkcionira na temelju predviđanja. Vaš uobičajeni mozak. Predviđanja su temelj svakog vašeg iskustva. Ona su temelj svakog vašeg djelovanja. Predviđanja vam omogućuju da razumijete riječi koje izgovaram dok one izlaze iz mojih --
Audience: Mouth. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Mouth. Exactly.
Publika: Usta. Lisa Feldman Barret: Usta. Točno.
Predictions are primal. They help us to make sense of the world in a quick and efficient way. So your brain does not react to the world. Using past experience, your brain predicts and constructs your experience of the world.
Predviđanja su urođena. Pomažu nam da brzo i učinkovito svijetu pridamo smisao. Vaš mozak ne reagira na svijet. Pomoću prošlih iskustava, vaš mozak predviđa i gradi vaš doživljaj svijeta.
The way that we see emotions in others are deeply rooted in predictions. So to us, it feels like we just look at someone's face, and we just read the emotion that's there in their facial expressions the way that we would read words on a page. But actually, under the hood, your brain is predicting. It's using past experience based on similar situations to try to make meaning. This time, you're not making meaning of blobs, you're making meaning of facial movements like the curl of a lip or the raise of an eyebrow. And that stone-faced stare? That might be someone who is a remorseless killer, but a stone-faced stare might also mean that someone is stoically accepting defeat, which is in fact what Chechen culture prescribes for someone in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's situation.
Način na koji u drugima prepoznajemo emocije ukorijenjen je u predviđanjima. Čini nam se da samo pogledamo u nečije lice i jednostavno čitamo emocije iz njihovih pokreta i izraza lica, slično čitanju riječi na stranici. Zapravo, kad pobliže pogledate, vaš mozak predviđa. Koristi prošlo iskustvo utemeljeno na sličnim situacijama kako bi došao do značenja. Ovaj put, ne tražite značenje u mrljama, nego u pokretima lica, poput nabiranja usana ili podizanja obrve. A ono okamenjeno zurenje? Možda je riječ o bezdušnom ubojici, no, okamenjeno zurenje može značiti i da netko stoički prihvaća poraz, što čečenska kultura propisuje nekome u situaciji u kojoj se našao Dzhokar Tsarnaev.
So the lesson here is that emotions that you seem to detect in other people actually come in part from what's inside your own head. And this is true in the courtroom, but it's also true in the classroom, in the bedroom, and in the boardroom.
Iz ovoga možemo naučiti da emocije koje prepoznajemo u drugima možda djelomično dolaze iz naše vlastite glave. To se odnosi na sudnicu, ali i na učionicu, spavaću sobu, sobu za sastanke.
And so here's my concern: tech companies which shall remain nameless ... well, maybe not. You know, Google, Facebook --
Evo što me brine: tehnološke kompanije koje ne treba imenovati ... a možda i treba. Znate, Google, Facebook --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
are spending millions of research dollars to build emotion-detection systems, and they are fundamentally asking the wrong question, because they're trying to detect emotions in the face and the body, but emotions aren't in your face and body. Physical movements have no intrinsic emotional meaning. We have to make them meaningful. A human or something else has to connect them to the context, and that makes them meaningful. That's how we know that a smile might mean sadness and a cry might mean happiness, and a stoic, still face might mean that you are angrily plotting the demise of your enemy. Now, if I haven't already gone out on a limb, I'll just edge out on that limb a little further and tell you that the way that you experience your own emotion is exactly the same process. Your brain is basically making predictions, guesses, that it's constructing in the moment with billions of neurons working together.
troše milijune dolara na izgradnju sustava za detekciju emocija, a u biti postavljaju pogrešno pitanje jer pokušavaju otkriti emocije na licu i tijelu, a emocije nisu na licu i tijelu. Tjelesni pokreti nemaju unutarnje emocionalno značenje. Mi im moramo dati značenje. Čovjek ili nešto drugo mora ih povezati s kontekstom i oni tako dobivaju značenje. Tako znamo da osmijeh može izražavati tugu, plač može izražavati sreću, a stoičko, mirno lice može odražavati da gnjevno u sebi snujete propast svojih neprijatelja. Ako već nisam zašla u područje nevjerojatnog, ozbiljno ću mu se približiti ako vam kažem da vlastite emocije doživljavate na isti način. Vaš mozak radi predviđanja, koja stvara u trenutku, a na čemu surađuju milijarde neurona.
Now your brain does come prewired to make some feelings, simple feelings that come from the physiology of your body. So when you're born, you can make feelings like calmness and agitation, excitement, comfort, discomfort. But these simple feelings are not emotions. They're actually with you every waking moment of your life. They are simple summaries of what's going on inside your body, kind of like a barometer. But they have very little detail, and you need that detail to know what to do next. What do you about these feelings? And so how does your brain give you that detail? Well, that's what predictions are. Predictions link the sensations in your body that give you these simple feelings with what's going on around you in the world so that you know what to do. And sometimes, those constructions are emotions.
Vaš mozak od početka ima urođene mehanizme za neke osjećaje, jednostavne osjećaje koji su utemeljeni na fiziologiji tijela. Kada se rodite, možete kreirati osjećaje smirenosti i uznemirenosti, uzbuđenja, ugode, neugode. Ti jednostavni osjećaji nisu emocije. Oni su s vama u svakom svjesnom trenutku života. Oni su jednostavni sažeci događanja u vašem tijelu, nalik su barometru. No, sadrže jako malo detalja, a potrebni su vam detalji kako biste znali što učiniti. Što učiniti s tim osjećajima? Kako vam mozak daje te pojedinosti? Putem predviđanja. Predviđanja povezuju osjete u tijelu koji vam daju te jednostavne osjećaje s onim što se događa oko vas u svijetu kako biste znali što učiniti. Katkad, te su konstrukcije emocije.
So for example, if you were to walk into a bakery, your brain might predict that you will encounter the delicious aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I know my brain would predict the delicious aroma of freshly baked chocolate cookies. And our brains might cause our stomachs to churn a little bit, to prepare for eating those cookies. And if we are correct, if in fact some cookies have just come out of the oven, then our brains will have constructed hunger, and we are prepared to munch down those cookies and digest them in a very efficient way, meaning that we can eat a lot of them, which would be a really good thing.
Na primjer, pri ulasku u pekarnicu, vaš će mozak možda predvidjeti da ćete naići na ukusnu aromu svježe pečenih čokoladnih keksa. Ja znam da bi moj mozak očekivao ukusnu aromu svježe pečenih čokoladnih keksa. Naš će mozak možda potaknuti naše želuce da malo zakrče, kako bi se pripremili na jedenje tih keksa. Ako imamo pravo, ako su neki keksi uistinu svježe pečeni, naš će mozak stvoriti osjećaj gladi, a mi smo spremni pojesti te kekse te ih učinkovito probaviti, dakle, možemo ih pojesti puno, što je sjajna stvar.
You guys are not laughing enough. I'm totally serious.
Ne smijete se dovoljno. Potpuno sam ozbiljna.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But here's the thing. That churning stomach, if it occurs in a different situation, it can have a completely different meaning. So if your brain were to predict a churning stomach in, say, a hospital room while you're waiting for test results, then your brain will be constructing dread or worry or anxiety, and it might cause you to, maybe, wring your hands or take a deep breath or even cry. Right? Same physical sensation, same churning stomach, different experience.
No, evo u čemu je stvar. Taj želudac koji krči, ako se dogodi u drugoj situaciji, može imati potpuno drugo značenje. Ako vaš mozak može predvidjeti krčanje želuca u, recimo, bolničkoj sobi dok čekate nalaze, vaš mozak tada stvara osjećaj straha, brige ili tjeskobe, i to vas može potaknuti da, možda, stežete ruke, duboko udahnete ili čak zaplačete. Nije li tako? Ista fizička reakcija, isto krčanje želuca, drukčije iskustvo.
And so the lesson here is that emotions which seem to happen to you are actually made by you. You are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits which are buried deep inside some ancient part of your brain. You have more control over your emotions than you think you do. I don't mean that you can just snap your fingers and change how you feel the way that you would change your clothes, but your brain is wired so that if you change the ingredients that your brain uses to make emotion, then you can transform your emotional life. So if you change those ingredients today, you're basically teaching your brain how to predict differently tomorrow, and this is what I call being the architect of your experience.
Iz toga možemo naučiti da emocije koje vam se naizgled događaju, vi sami stvarate. Niste prepušteni mitskim urođenim mehanizmima emocija koji su zakopani negdje duboko u zaboravljenom kutku vašeg mozga. Imate više moći nad svojim emocijama nego što to mislite. Ne mislim da možete samo zapucketati prstima i promijeniti kako se osjećate kao što biste promijenili odjeću, no, vaš je mozak programiran tako da ako promijenite sastojke uz pomoć kojih vaš mozak kreira emocije, možete duboko promijeniti svoj emocionalni život. Ako danas promijenite te sastojke, podučavate svoj mozak kako predvidjeti drukčije sutra, i to nazivam projektiranjem vlastitog iskustva.
So here's an example. All of us have had a nervous feeling before a test, right? But some people experience crippling anxiety before a test. They have test anxiety. Based on past experiences of taking tests, their brains predict a hammering heartbeat, sweaty hands, so much so that they are unable to actually take the test. They don't perform well, and sometimes they not only fail courses but they actually might fail college. But here's the thing: a hammering heartbeat is not necessarily anxiety. It could be that your body is preparing to do battle and ace that test ... or, you know, give a talk in front of hundreds of people on a stage where you're being filmed.
Evo primjera. Svi znamo kako je osjećati se nervoznim prije ispita. No, neki ljudi osjećaju paralizirajuću tjeskobu prije ispita. Oni pate od ispitne anksioznosti. Na temelju prošlih iskustava polaganja ispita, njihov mozak predviđa ubrzano lupanje srca, znojne dlanove, do te mjere da, zapravo, nisu sposobni polagati ispit. Ostvaruju loše rezultate, ponekad ne samo da ne polože ispite, možda ne uspiju ni završiti studij. Zapravo: ubrzan rad srca nije uvijek tjeskoba. Možda se vaše tijelo priprema na bitku, i briljirat ćete na ispitu ... ili, znate, održati govor pred stotinama ljudi na pozornici dok vas snimaju.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I'm serious.
Ozbiljna sam.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And research shows that when students learn to make this kind of energized determination instead of anxiety, they perform better on tests. And that determination seeds their brain to predict differently in the future so that they can get their butterflies flying in formation. And if they do that often enough, they not only can pass a test but it will be easier for them to pass their courses, and they might even finish college, which has a huge impact on their future earning potential. So I call this emotional intelligence in action.
Istraživanje pokazuje, kada studenti uče zauzeti ovakav energičan stav, odlučnost, umjesto prepuštanja tjeskobi, postižu bolje rezultate na ispitima. Ta odlučnost programira mozak na drukčija predviđanja u budućnosti, pa im leptirići u trbuhu donose potrebne informacije. Ako to čine dovoljno često, ne samo da će položiti ispit, nego će lakše položiti kolegije, a možda i završe fakultet, što će imati veliki utjecaj na njihove buduće mogućnosti zarade. Stoga to nazivam emocionalnom inteligencijom u akciji.
Now you can cultivate this emotional intelligence yourself and use it in your everyday life. So just, you know, imagine waking up in the morning. I'm sure you've had this experience. I know I have. You wake up and as you're emerging into consciousness, you feel this horrible dread, you know, this real wretchedness, and immediately, your mind starts to race. You start to think about all the crap that you have to do at work and you have that mountain of email which you will never dig yourself out of ever, the phone calls you have to return, and that important meeting across town, and you're going to have to fight traffic, you'll be late picking your kids up, your dog is sick, and what are you going to make for dinner? Oh my God. What is wrong with your life? What is wrong with my life?
Sada i sami možete njegovati tu emocionalnu inteligenciju te je koristiti u svakodnevnom životu. Samo, znate, zamislite buđenje ujutro. Sigurno ste to doživjeli. Ja jesam. Probudite se i dok uranjate u svjesnost, osjećate taj strašan strah, znate, taj istinski jad, i odmah, misli se otmu kontroli. Počnete misliti na gluposti koje vas čekaju na poslu i na to brdo mailova kojih se nikada nećete riješiti, pozive koje morate uzvratiti, na važan sastanak na drugom kraju grada, morat ćete se probijati u prometu, zakasnit ćete po djecu, pas vam je bolestan, a što skuhati za večeru? O, moj Bože. Što ne valja s vašim životom? Što ne valja s mojim životom?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
That mind racing is prediction. Your brain is searching to find an explanation for those sensations in your body that you experience as wretchedness, just like you did with the blobby image. So your brain is trying to explain what caused those sensations so that you know what to do about them. But those sensations might not be an indication that anything is wrong with your life. They might have a purely physical cause. Maybe you're tired. Maybe you didn't sleep enough. Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you're dehydrated. The next time that you feel intense distress, ask yourself: Could this have a purely physical cause? Is it possible that you can transform emotional suffering into just mere physical discomfort?
Te neobuzdane misli su predviđanje. Vaš mozak traži objašnjenje za osjete u tijelu koje doživljavate kao jad, kao što ste predviđali s onom slikom. Vaš mozak pokušava objasniti što uzrokuje te osjete, kako biste znali što učiniti. No, ti osjeti možda ne znače da nešto nije u redu s vašim životom. Možda imaju fizički uzrok. Možda ste umorni. Možda niste dovoljno spavali. Možda ste gladni. Možda ste dehidrirani. Sljedeći put kada osjetite intenzivni distres, zapitajte se: Ima li ovo možda fizički uzrok? Je li moguće preobraziti emocionalnu patnju u puku fizičku nelagodu?
Now I am not suggesting to you that you can just perform a couple of Jedi mind tricks and talk yourself out of being depressed or anxious or any kind of serious condition. But I am telling you that you have more control over your emotions than you might imagine, and that you have the capacity to turn down the dial on emotional suffering and its consequences for your life by learning how to construct your experiences differently. And all of us can do this and with a little practice, we can get really good at it, like driving. At first, it takes a lot of effort, but eventually it becomes pretty automatic.
Ne tvrdim da možete samo upotrijebiti nekoliko trikova u stilu Jedija i uvjeriti se da niste depresivni ili anksiozni ili bilo što slično povezano s ozbiljnom bolešću. No, govorim vam da imate veću kontrolu nad svojim emocijama nego što zamišljate i da imate sposobnost smanjiti količinu emocionalne patnje i njezinih posljedica na vaš život, budete li naučili kako drugačije konstruirati svoja iskustva. Svi to možemo, a uz malo vježbe možemo postati uistinu dobri u tome, slično vožnji. Isprva, to zahtijeva puno truda, no, s vremenom postane automatski.
Now I don't know about you, but I find this to be a really empowering and inspiring message, and the fact that it's backed up by decades of research makes me also happy as a scientist. But I have to also warn you that it does come with some fine print, because more control also means more responsibility. If you are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits which are buried deep inside your brain somewhere and which trigger automatically, then who's responsible, who is responsible when you behave badly? You are. Not because you're culpable for your emotions, but because the actions and the experiences that you make today become your brain's predictions for tomorrow. Sometimes we are responsible for something not because we're to blame but because we're the only ones who can change it.
Ne znam kako vi to vidite, no, smatram to ohrabrujućom i nadahnjujućom porukom, a to što je potkrijepljena desetljećima istraživanja, raduje me kao znanstvenicu. No, moram vas upozoriti da ima jedna "kvaka", više kontrole podrazumijeva i više odgovornosti. Ako vama ne upravlja vaš ugrađeni emocionalni mehanizam, skriven negdje duboko u vašem mozgu, a koji reagira automatski, tko je onda odgovoran, tko je odgovoran za vaše loše ponašanje? Vi. Ne zato što ste krivi za ono što osjećate, nego zato što današnje djelovanje i iskustva postaju predviđanja vašeg mozga sutra. Katkad smo odgovorni za nešto, ne jer smo krivi, nego zato jer smo jedini koji to možemo promijeniti.
Now responsibility is a big word. It's so big, in fact, that sometimes people feel the need to resist the scientific evidence that emotions are built and not built in. The idea that we are responsible for our own emotions seems very hard to swallow. But what I'm suggesting to you is you don't have to choke on that idea. You just take a deep breath, maybe get yourself a glass of water if you need to, and embrace it. Embrace that responsibility, because it is the path to a healthier body, a more just and informed legal system, and a more flexible and potent emotional life.
Odgovornost je težak pojam. Toliko je težak da ljudi katkad požele odoljeti znanstvenim dokazima, da se emocija grade, tj. da nisu ugrađene. Zamisao da smo odgovorni za vlastite emocije teško je progutati. Želim reći da vas ta zamisao ne mora ugušiti. Udahnite duboko, popijte čašu vode ako treba i prigrlite tu zamisao. Prigrlite odgovornost jer je ona put prema zdravijem tijelu te pravednijem i informiranijem pravnom sustavu, kao i fleksibilnijem te moćnijem emocionalnom životu.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)