Conversation on Value7/007

Value in Emotion with Batja Mesquita<br/><br />

Emotions are not innate, but happen between people and signal a taking of a stance in relationships, both one-on-one and within larger social networks. That’s the thesis and argument in Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions. A pioneer of cultural psychology, Batja Mesquita discusses her scientific research and work on emotion with Valeria Maltoni. The conversation ranges from the contours of “shame” and “anger” in different cultures, to the invention and uses of “love” and “happiness” in culture, from how moving away and toward another human being or group works emotionally, to how emotions could tie into stories in the world, rather than being actual mental states.<br/><br />

Batja Mesquita (https://www.batjamesquita.com/) is a social psychologist and affective scientist. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Leuven. (https://ppw.kuleuven.be/cscp) . Before coming to Leuven, she was affiliated to Wake Forest University, the University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the University of Amsterdam. Mesquita is one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychological study of cultural differences in emotions. Her most recent research focuses on the role of emotions in multicultural societies. She studies how emotions affect the belonging of minority youth in middle schools, and the social and economic integration of “newcomers” (i.e. newly arrived immigrants). Mesquita has been a consultant for UNICEF and the WHO, and most recently, she was a member of the core group of scientific advisors for the Happiness and Well-being (SEH) Project, an initiative of the Vatican in partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).<br/><br />