The Eyes and Fires of Emotions

Insofar as emotionally laden words can trigger strong feelings, emotive arguments and loaded language are often particularly effective and persuasive in eliciting raw and quick reaction by exploiting the potential for emotional complication caused by the human predisposition for acting impulsively, spontaneously or passionately. However, such an emotive reaction based upon an emotional response without the rein of further considered judgement can ultimately be highly unconducive and even detrimental to situation, argument, discourse, writing or speech where fairness, impartiality and sagacity are required. One of the most important and defining measures of freedom, autonomy and civil liberties is the extent to which people can choose and perform their actions unencumbered by poor judgement, reasoning or circumstance. Unfortunately, their ability to do so is all too easily foiled or compromised when their actions are prone to being swayed by their thoughts and feelings, especially when they permit their emotions to be manipulated by what they encounter in everyday life. Supremely catalytic and intractable in worsening or complicating emotionally charged issues is the high prevalence of Infodemic causing widespread Media Landscape & Information Ecosystem Pollution via the surfeits of misquotation, misinformation and disinformation coupled with rampant politicization, biased media coverage and raw emotions pervading the (social) media and public arenas, all of which have resulted in the protracted impairment of people’s ability to learn sagaciously, think critically, judge sensibly, decide cogently and act astutely.

Propelled by increasingly powerful telecommunications technology, and accelerated by even greater network, data and digital bandwidths, the roles of social media in supercharging, polarizing or even radicalizing the media landscape, information ecosystem, public discourse, social issues, social debates, advertising power and political impact are so significant that they can hardly be ignored or overstated. In such a complex, fast-paced, consumerist, hyperconnected and information-laden world, the spread of misquotations and misinformation typically rides on people’s emotional drives, biased attitudes, cardinal urges, primal impulses and tribal instincts, and often hinges on people’s ignorance, credulity, volatility, grievance, perceived injustice, prejudice, fear, rumour and even paranoia. Emotions fuelling biases and flaring opinions can be seen as a major, volatile contributor to innumerable social flashpoints, cultural minefields and ideological infernos, where truths become victims and martyrs. On the one hand, numerous expert findings, commentaries, discussions, (meta-)analyses and recommendations about social, cultural, political, economic and environmental issues and policies have often been disparaged, denigrated, sidelined, disregarded or even suppressed by partisan tirades, illiberal ideologies, corporate hegemony, power struggle, political opportunism, autocratic management, discriminitory practice, obfuscating manoeuvre, gross misrepresentation, brash sensationalism, fake news, alternative facts, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, yellow journalism, historical negationism, anti-intellectualism, Machiavellianism, populism, the cult of anti-expertise sentiment, and the politicization of science. On the other hand, the quality of news, information, journalism, public discourse and social life as well as politics and governance have been adversely impacted by Hype, Bias and Affect, thus negatively affecting democracy, civil society, civic activism, legitimate journalism and the world at large. In particular, the ease and frequency with which countless people from all walks of life readily or unreservedly slip into the cacophony of opinions and partialities in flagrant disregard for factuality and fairness have indubitably pointed to a deep-seated aspect of Homo sapiens. The perennial predilection for drama and the persistent preoccupation with emotion are part and parcel of (the (eu)social world inhabited by) the human species, simultaneously constituting the defining strength and the Achilles’ heel of the naked ape, insofar as large swathes of the human population have been held captive by biologically-based psychological states — the neurophysiological edifices that have been holding sway over much of humanity and showing no sign of abatement through the ages, whilst being magnified by institutional and technological advancements.