“Do I start crying just by looking at a cat?”… Is there a name for this feeling that makes you cry? Is there a name for this feeling?

You may have often experienced situations where you are so emotional that you end up crying even though you are not feeling sad. When you run into a friend you haven’t seen in a long time, when you see a lost and abandoned kitten soaking in the rain, when an elderly neighbor makes hot soup for you, when a soldier or firefighter sacrifices himself for the community. This is the feeling I get when I go to a place that commemorates.

This strange but powerful feeling also has a name. It is Kama muta. In Sanskrit, it means “to be moved by love.” This term, named by Professor Allan Fiske (psychological anthropology) at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, is unfamiliar, but most people easily accept the emotions they study. The Observer, the weekend edition of the British Guardian, recently reported that it was a ‘nameless emotion’ that anyone could sympathize with, even though it had not been given a name until now.

Professor Fiske and Professors Thomas Schubert and Beat Seib of the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo in Norway have been conducting research on Kama Muta, ‘an emotion that evolved to bind us to other people and strengthen relationships’, for more than 10 years. The three psychologists explained that while talking about superhero movies about 10 years ago, they began to pay attention to the emotions that make people cry in positive situations. In superhero movies, the scenes that make children cry are often moments of hope when their allies rush to save the superhero, rather than when the superhero collapses or is defeated.

What is Kama Muta? Emotions that increase solidarity and encourage action with greater compassion and kindness

These researchers then worked to define these emotions as scientific concepts through in-depth interviews, experiments, and ethnographic observations. As part of that effort, this emotion, named Kama Muta, is defined as ‘an emotion that fosters solidarity and encourages action with greater compassion and kindness.’

Professor Fiske explained that Kama Muta has a scientific component. It is a short, positive (or bitter) feeling, often captured by metaphorical expressions that describe movement, such as ‘moved’ or ‘stirred’. It is accompanied by symptoms such as warmth in the chest, goosebumps on the skin, chills in the throat, and watering in the eyes, and occurs when relationships with friends, family, lovers, or members of the same community are suddenly heightened. Emotions last only 30 seconds to 1 minute, but they last for a long time, allowing us to have greater compassion for others and show kindness.

The explanation of Kama Muta immediately strikes a chord as soon as it is explained, even though most people have never heard of this term or definition. “I like the fact that very few people say, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ and that most people have feelings they don’t even know about,” Professor Fiske said.

According to a survey in 19 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., people felt kama muta when watching life stories or videos of couples kissing.

By 2018, Professor Fiske and his colleagues had completed extensive research on Kama Muta in 19 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, India, China, and Japan. When participants were asked to recall an episode in their life that brought about ‘positive tears’ or were shown various videos, such as a montage clip of a couple kissing from childhood to old age, and then filled out a questionnaire, they responded that they felt Kama Muta differently from other emotions. I confirmed that there were a lot of people.

Since caring relationships are a basic human need, it is natural that emotions that motivate us to maintain them have evolved. When people felt kama muta, they were more likely to agree with statements like: Statements such as ‘I wanted to tell someone how much I care’, ‘I wanted to hug someone’, or ‘I wanted to do something particularly nice for someone’.

After feeling Kama Muta…the actual temperature of the skin around the chest also increases.

According to a later study by another Kama Muta researcher, Professor Janis Ziegfeld (social psychology) at Aarhus University in Denmark, after watching a video that evoked feelings of Kama Muta, participants actually experienced a slight increase in skin temperature around their chest. This suggests that these videos literally ‘warmed my heart’. But interestingly, the participants’ heart rate and breathing rate tended to lower after feeling the emotion. Professor Siegfeld explained, “It could be something that calms the body,” adding, “There is a momentary increase in arousal, and then the feeling brings it back down to baseline.”

Storytellers have long used the tactic of evoking Kama Muta to captivate their audiences. Professor Fiske points out that its origins can be found in the scene where Odysseus returns to Ithaca after 20 years of wandering and reunites with his wife, Penelope. Even today, many people feel Kama Muta in the romantic science fiction film ‘Wall-E’ (2008), where he reunites with Eve.

You can feel Kama Muta on YouTube, including cat videos.

Kama Muta can also be found in popular YouTube videos these days. The reason videos featuring cute cats are popular is because they stimulate paternal and maternal love in humans. A study by Professor Kamila Knudsen-Steines of Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway found that the cuteness of cats was directly correlated with the intensity of kama muta experienced by participants. “YouTube is a vehicle for kamamuta,” Professor Steines said. “People post these videos because they enjoy experiencing this emotion, and people who watch them want to share them.”

Mental health experts are beginning to take notice of Kama Muta’s potential to heal the mind. Dr. Christina Alessandrini, from Ireland’s Institute for the Integration of Counseling and Psychotherapy (IICP), said that even the smallest gestures, such as offering a client a cup of tea or taking them for a walk, can have a big impact on people’s response to treatment. pointed out. “Clients feel moved by these moments of connection,” he said. “It seems to make a big difference in the client’s healing during the treatment process.”

Kama Muta also influences elections… Will voting intention increase?

Other researchers are interested in how certain rituals can evoke Kama Muta in large groups. A study found that in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Democratic and Republican campaign ads triggered kama muta among supporters and increased voting intentions. Politicians will find ways to use this to their advantage. But sending the right message can help heal political divisions.

A recent experiment found that invoking kama muta tends to improve Republicans’ views of Democrats and vice versa. The biggest effect was when Ray Charles performed ‘America the Beautiful’, known as America’s ‘second national anthem’, before the American Professional Baseball World Series a few weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Kama Muta combined with national pride. It can be found in the case that brought about this.

Now, more than 10 years after his first conversation about Kama Muta, Professor Fiske said he has come to think of himself as a “connoisseur” of all emotions. “One of the great things about discovering this feeling (Kama Muta) is that you can savor it,” he said. “When you feel it, you realize that you are a loving person and that other people love you too.”