Comment: Moving (Further) Beyond Private Experience: On the Radicalization of the Social Approach to Emotions and the Emancipation of Verbal Emotional Expressions

Emotions have traditionally been viewed as intrapersonal phenomena. Over the past decades, theory and research have shifted toward a more social perspective that emphasizes the role of emotional expressions in coordinating social interaction. I provide a brief history of this ongoing paradigm shift, which reveals two critical developments. The first concerns a continuing shift in emphasis on the social-communicative rather than individual-level functions and effects of emotions—the radicalization of the social approach to emotion. The second concerns a growing awareness that emotions can be expressed through multiple modalities, including words—the emancipation of verbal emotional expressions. I discuss theoretical challenges and opportunities presented by these developments and consider their implications for understanding emotions as a source of social influence.