How The Latest Neuroscience Can Help You Be A Better Person

For the past 30 years, Neuroscientist Lisa Barrett has been wondering what we've gotten so wrong about emotion and the brain. Sesame Street shows its itty bitty viewers what a picture-perfect sad face looks like – and how we ought to sound when we get mad. NBA teams trying to draft the next LeBron draw upon their own set of facial cues, hoping to assess a player's character or their "team chemistry." Barrett has always been bugged by this idea that our emotions should look or feel a certain way. As an eager graduate student in psychology, she set out to investigate–hoping the scientific method would help guide her back in the right direction.