By Lisa Feldman Barrett

The classical view of emotions is that they are triggered within us and each emotion follows a consistent pattern across individuals. They are hard wired and uniform and can therefore be detected.

Barret argues for a new theory, a theory of emotional construction. She claims that our brains construct emotions through a combination of our knowledge / experiences / cultural exposure. In this sense emotions work differently for different people and therefore cannot be recognized by an outside observer with certainty (jurors looking for remorse)