How we affect others when we show our emotions

First review study of the social effects of emotions Scientists have sought for thousands of years to answer questions about the nature and purpose of emotions. Psychologists Gerben van Kleef (University of Amsterdam) and Stéphane Côté (University of Toronto) have now released the most comprehensive review article on the social effects of emotions to date. The belief that emotions are inherently social and do not occur inside one person but rather between several persons (an approach that was largely developed at the UvA) is increasingly internationally regarded as the standard. The article was published in Annual Review of Psychology, the most impactful scientific journal for psychologists. 'Emotions play a major part in our personal and professional lives. They shape our social relationships and affect our performance at work and how successful we are in our lives. Therefore, in order to understand how people function, we must understand emotions,' says Gerben van Kleef, professor of Social Psychology at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, where research on human emotions is part of a long and distinguished tradition.