<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); white-space-collapse: preserve;">If Nick shares his struggles with weather I can share my unqualified thoughts about psychology :-P I was thinking about the orange menace, how he deceives everyone and how he manipulates his followers by controlling their emotions and I was wondering if emotions deceive us in general. Do emotions deceive us by creating a reality distortion field that paints the objects they have identified as desirable (primarily food & mates for supper and pairing time) in the brightest colors? </span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Emotions certainly need to manipulate us in order to control us. Their purpose is to influence our behavior and interactions. Psychologist Mary C. Lamia writes "Without any deliberate effort on your part, your brain evaluates every situation you encounter and decides if an emotion should be activated to alert and protect you" [1]. They are in a sense the PR machine and advertising agency of the body. As if the body would create an advertising agency that highlights the objects it should seek. </span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Emotions deceive us because they exaggerate. If we are in love they turn the desired object of person into some kind of wonderful dream. We only perceive positive traits while negative ones are overlooked. If we hate something we only perceive negative traits. These distortions act on top of your beliefs which "create a cognitive lens through which you interpret the events of your world" [2]</span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">They exaggerate to alert and protect us. Mary C. Lamia writes "By creating anxiety, anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, disgust, embarrassment, or any number of emotional responses that your brain has at its disposal, your emotional system attempts to inform and protect you by making you feel whatever it is you need to know." [1]</span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Emotions deceive us because they can be misguided based on your previous experience, for example in anxiety disorders or addiction: "Your emotional system has no reason to lie, although it can be misguided based on your previous experiences in the world that have informed it." [1]</span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Apparently emotions create a personal truth for each of us which shows us the world as they (on behalf of our selfish genes) want us to see it. A kind of personalized, distorted version of reality that reflects the importance of each object based on </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); white-space-collapse: preserve;">our personal longings and desires. Mary C. Lamia writes "nevertheless, your emotions will tell you the truth - your truth - even if you don't want to listen." [1]</span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intense-emotions-and-strong-feelings/201208/do-emotions-lie</span></p><br><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-forward/202009/how-your-thinking-creates-your-reality</span></p><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div></body></html>