Quantifying Emotions
One question that is poking me
hard is about the emotions. Can we actually quantify emotions, which are
basically intangible? The answer is yes and the methodologies are still under
development. But how are we going to quantify is what matters. If we are able
to measure emotions can we compare same emotions between two people? If we are
able to compare same emotions between two people then can we compare two
different emotions of a same person?
Currently there are many methods
to measure emotions like analyzing sweat on palms, heart rate frequency, facial
changes etc. I was reading some articles on measuring emotions and upcoming
technologies. In one article it was mentioned that Cambridge University is
working on analyzing the breath of a person and measure his emotions. Another
methodology is from analyzing the nervous system of a person.
For all these methods we need to
go to take an appointment and go to laboratory and check our emotions, which is
not the solution to problem statement. If somebody says ‘I Love Dogs’, we
cannot take them to laboratory and check how much they actually love dogs or we
cannot create a Likert Scale and start analyzing it. If a person says he is
angry we cannot possibly say he is 40 units angry or something like that. According
to me all these are assumptions and not measurements. A person may be feeling
angry but can control his emotions.
Now comes the next question; can
we compare emotions? From my perspective this is nearly impossible. A person
cannot conclusively tell he is happier or more frustrated than another person.
A person might be feeling more happiness or more pain from inside and might be
controlling it without expressing it that does not mean that person is
emotionless. He just knows how to eat his emotions or in simple words he is
poor in expressing.
There is a popular saying in IT
industry. “If you cannot measure it; it does not exist”. If this statement is
true then emotions are absolutely measurable, if emotions are not absolutely
measurable then they do not exist. Are we still living in an era where
technology is not developed enough to quantify emotions? Whatever technologies
we have currently which analyze so many things related to emotions are
absolutes or assumptions?
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