Jonathan Turner

Who

American sociologist, UC Riverside. Evolutionary sociology of emotions.

Core Idea

Emotions evolved as social coordination mechanisms. Primary emotions (fear, anger, happiness, sadness) combine into more complex emotional states. Emotional dynamics are the invisible infrastructure of all social interaction.

Key Works

• The Sociology of Emotions (2007)
• Face to Face: Toward a Sociological Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (2002)

Relevance

The evolutionary and functional argument for why emotions are not decoration on top of rational social life — they are the mechanism by which social life operates. For brand strategy: trust, credibility, and authority are emotional states that design either enables or forecloses. Understanding the sociology of how these states are produced gives you a more rigorous account of what brand design is actually doing.

Connected To

• Randall Collins — Collins builds on Turner's foundational sociology of emotions for his interaction ritual theory
• Arlie Hochschild — Turner's primary emotions are what emotional labor manages and performs
• Sara Ahmed — Turner's evolutionary account underlies Ahmed's cultural/political theory of emotion

Notes