“Emodiversity,” or living with a wide range of many different types of both very positive and very negative emotions, is strongly linked to overall mental health and well-being, writes Discover Magazine‘s Neuroskeptic.
Neuroskeptic discusses the findings of two large surveys done in France and Belgium. “It turns out that emotional diversity was a good thing (in terms of being associated with less depression etc.) for both positive and for negative emotions. This seems a little counter-intuitive. You might have expected that feeling many negative emotions would be worse than only feeling one of them – but in fact, it’s better.”
Neuroskeptic then quotes from the authors of the study. “[just as] biodiversity increases resilience to negative events because a single predator cannot wipe out an entire ecosystem, emodiversity may prevent specific emotions – in particular detrimental ones such as acute stress, anger or sadness – from dominating the emotional ecosystem.”
Emodiversity: A Mix of Emotions Is Healthiest? (Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, October 13, 2014)
