Dimension of 'uniquely' and 'non-uniquely' emotions

Emotions scientists often distinguish those emotions that are encountered universally, even among animals ("primary emotions"), from those experiences by human beings ("secondary emotions"). No attempt, however has ever been made to catpure the lay conception about this distinction and to find the criteria on which this distinction is based. The first study presented in this paper was conducted in three countries involving four languages, as as to allow for cross-cultural comparisons. Results showed a remarkable convergence. People from all samples not only differentiated between "uniquely human" and "non-uniquely human" emotions on a continuuum, but they dd so on the same basis as the one used by emotion scientists to distinsuich "primary" form "secondary" emotions. Study 2 focused on the implicit use of such a distinction. When confronted with a human (animal) context, participants reacted faster to secondary (vs primary) emotions. The implications of the human uniqueness of some emotions within the social and interpersonal contexts are discussed.