Six emotions everyone shares: Scientists have found that people everywhere — in every country and culture — feel the same basic emotions. The most common list has six: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. A small baby feels them, and a grown adult feels them too.
Every emotion has a face: You can often see an emotion on a person's face before they say a word. Happiness brings a smile. Sadness brings tears or a lowered head. Fear opens the eyes wide. That is why faces are the quickest way to understand how someone feels.
Other feelings grow from these six: Many feelings we know are blends of the basic ones. Love grows from happiness. Worry grows from fear. Shame and guilt grow from sadness and fear mixed together. Jealousy grows from anger, sadness, and fear. Once you know the six basics, the rest become easier to recognise.
Emotions can mix together: You can feel two emotions at the same time. On your first day at a new job, you can feel happy and nervous together. At your sister's wedding, you can feel joyful and a little sad, because she is leaving home. Mixed feelings are normal, not a sign of confusion.
Example
Bilal starts a new job. In the morning he feels excited — he smiles, walks fast, and talks to everyone. By lunchtime, his boss gives him a difficult task and he feels afraid of failing. In the evening, he is proud that he finished the task.
Three emotions in one day: happiness, fear, and pride. None of them is strange. Each one matches something that happened to him that day.
Key Terms
- Basic emotions (بنیادی جذبات) — the six emotions felt by people everywhere: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust
- Happiness (خوشی / Khushi) — the feeling that comes when something good happens
- Fear (خوف / Khauf) — the feeling that warns you of danger
- Disgust (نفرت / Nafrat) — the feeling of strong dislike, e.g. at a bad smell or bad food
Quran or Hadith
None used in this topic.
Fresh diagram to be drawn: Six simple faces in a row — happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, disgusted — drawn as simple emoji-style faces in Project Desk colours.
- People everywhere feel the same six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust.
- Emotions show on the face before a person says a word.
- Feelings can mix. You can feel happy and nervous at the same time, and that is normal.