Why You Feel Bad When Nothing Is Wrong - Rob Kurzban

You are at the intersection of two things that I love, evolutionary psychology and emotions, trying to work out why we feel feelings, what's the reason for them, how did they come to be? And why is this topic interesting to you? >> So, for me feelings are everything, right? So, our motivations basically come from what we feel. So, if we feel

hungry, we want to eat. If we feel aroused, we want to do something else. If we feel jealous, we want to say whatever. So, they go the most interesting pieces, I think, of human behavior, which is what I study, is driven by our feelings. And then, the evolutionary piece gives us a way to

understand them. So, for me, it's really exciting. We have a really good way to understand all of the things that cause us to do the things that we want to do. What could be more interesting than that? >> Why is the evolutionary angle interesting or useful when it comes to looking at feelings and emotions?

>> I would say the evolutionary point of view is going to be critical for studying anything that humans do. We're an animal, we're an ape, just like every other species on the planet. We have an evolutionary history. If you want to explain and understand the behavior of any organism, I mean, it'd be weird to

study an ape or a mongoose without the theory of evolution by natural selection. So, I just apply and people like me apply those ideas to humans using the same lens, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. It's not really an optional part of the analysis. You have to ask, well, you've got this

brain, it's super complicated. What's it for? What's it trying to get us to do? >> Mhm. Why do feelings need to feel like anything at all? It's not obvious that there needs to be a phenomenology to stuff. Like, a thermometer is able to detect heat and it doesn't seem to be feeling any kind of way. So, like, why