Emotional summary

Intuition often gets a bad rap – it’s seen as unreliable or mystical. But there’s actually a deep neurological basis for the term “gut instinct,” as scientists discovered when they performed an astonishing experiment on mice. 

Researchers separated lab mice into groups based on personality, with more adventurous mice in one group and more timid ones in another. They then transplanted gut biomes from these two groups into mice whose systems were more sterile. Here’s what happened: the mice that got the transplants from adventurous donors took on those personality traits, while the mice that got transplants from timid mice showed those traits. Who would have thought that gut bacteria could influence personality?

In 1990, the obscure boxer James “Buster” Douglas took on champion Mike Tyson. Tyson was widely expected to thrash Douglas on his way to a more important boxing match. And then Douglas’s mother died right before the match. She’d been an important figure in Douglas’s life and an enthusiastic supporter of his boxing career. 

The experts were right – Douglas did take a pounding. But his mother’s death helped motivate him to keep swinging and stay in the ring despite the toll of Tyson’s assault. Eventually, Douglas shocked the boxing world and knocked Tyson out in the tenth round. He’d unlocked a key to beating Tyson that other boxers soon took advantage of: if you hung in the match long enough, you could wear him down. 

We’ve discovered that genes have a huge influence on people’s personalities. But does that mean you’re a prisoner of your nature? Say you have an anger problem or struggle with shame – are you stuck? 

If you want to start a huge fight among social scientists, bring up this nature versus nurture debate. But while opinions differ, most agree that both our innate nature as well as our environment and upbringing affect us. This emotional wiring, if it gets out of balance, can seriously impact our lives.

There’s a reason sitcoms feature a laugh track: it makes the shows funnier to us.

Humans unconsciously mimic each other and sync emotions because our brains are wired for empathy and cooperation. That means positive or negative emotions can spread through interaction with others (or by hearing them laugh on a laugh track.) It’s called emotional contagion. 

Research indicates that people who can control their emotions and use them strategically are – surprise, surprise – more successful in many spheres of life. 

The good news is that there are three steps you can take to help you do that: acceptance, reappraisal, and expression.