118: Shades of Pride

“What is it in the human psyche that allows us to achieve, create, discover, and invent in ways that no other species can?”

This is a question Jessica Tracy explores in her book Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. Tracy is a professor of psychology, an emotion researcher, and a social-personality psychologist at the University of British Columbia. In our conversation we discuss the established and emerging research on:

• The 2 distinct expressions of pride (hubristic and authentic), and how they relate to the routes to power (dominance and prestige),

• The experience and expressions of shame, and how the emotion has made its way into the research on everything from narcissism to addiction,

• The moral and self-conscious emotions, and the roles they play in decision making.

Thanks to Jessica for coming on the podcast and discussing these fascinating and important lines of research!