An Atlas of Emotions, Inspired by the Dalai Lama

Two years ago, the famed psychologist and emotions expert Paul Ekman sent a survey to nearly 250 researchers active in his discipline. The idea was to see what the fast-growing field actually agreed upon in interpreting the scientific evidence on the nature of emotion. The survey showed that at least one notion is solid: Universal emotions exist. Eighty-eight percent of the scientists who responded agreed that, no matter who you are, or where you were raised, you are bound to share certain feelings with the rest of mankind.

That finding, along with the five emotions that scientists rated as the most universal—anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and enjoyment—are the basis of the Atlas of Emotions, a new interactive tool that Ekman developed with his daughter Eke Ekman, also an emotions researcher, and the San Francisco data-visualization firm Stamen Design.