Awkward: A call to arms for a found emotion.

Recently, the word awkward has started dominating our media worlds. Adverts, programmes, news articles, and novels have all given space to this word. There's a movie about it, songs about it, Facebook, tumbler and reddit pages dedicated to it, and much more. But what is it?

I asked this question on my Facebook page a while ago and a friend of mine and fellow ex-Cambridge inmate - Dawn Jackson Williams (her blog can be found here)  - suggested that this might be a new emotion, perhaps even a 'found' emotion. So I thought I'd give it a closer look.

Could Awkward be an emotion?

Let’s start by asking if it actually is an emotion by in turn asking ‘what is an emotion anyway?’ I'll have a look at the research and find a universally defined definition of emotion by which we can evaluate it.

Well, this is awkward. There doesn't seem to be one.

Richard Shweder's suggestion that it is 'an essentially contested concept' is pretty much on the money. It could be a neural impulse that leads to survival behaviour, or sexual behaviour.  Neuroscience says it's just types of pleasant on unpleasant sensation centred around the limbic system; a neurochemical 'step-up' of the lizard brain in our mammalian brain. Paul Ekman has given us seven characteristics of emotions while some say emotions are sociocultural constructions, some that they are linguistic constructions, and some that they are a feed back loop to alert people to their state in the world. The bottom line is there is little that researchers agree on other than these things are feelings that we have. They then get more confused when concepts like affect and mood and sensation and passion get added to the mix. It's all a bit of a mess, really. 

So how can we unknot this coital cluttering? Let’s try a few definitions and see if it fits.

Awkward as Ekman’s characteristics

1. Automatical appraisal: we realise we are feeling awkward without prompt, so that’s okay.

2. Commonalities in antecedent events: only certain things can cause the sensation of ’awkward’.

3. Presence in other Primates: Hard to say; the usual response is ‘needs testing’, so I’ll go with that.

4. Quick onset: pretty much instantaneous, I’d say.

5. Brief Duration: well, it doesn’t linger.

6. Unbidden occurrence: yep, it happens suddenly  alright.

7. Distinctive physiology: now this one is interesting, I’ll come back to it later.

I’d say it passes the Ekman test. I’d also say it is a sociocultural construct, and it is extremely linguistic in nature and while any evolutionary benefit is difficult to find; I’m sure a canny evolutionary psychologist out there can think of one. I would, then, say it is an emotion.

What is Awkward, then?

Linda Davidoff says it’s all about physiology: heartbeats, facial expressions, crying, shaking and so on. Like I mentioned above, Awkward has its physiological element. It seems to involve sweating, feeling uncomfortable with that bit of a squirm. When used in humour we see the pupils dilate of the person who triggers the emotion, the palms become sweaty, all those involved desperately trying to avoid each others’ gaze, and a sudden aversion to physical contact. It also has elements similar to fear; a flight or freeze mechanism (sometimes fight?) kicks in to all who experience it, and it HAS to be a group experience, even if the cause is just one person. It is an inherently social emotion.

This a social emotion as it is never felt by just one person, even though it is strongest in the person who causes it. If it happens when you are alone, it has to be shared or it remains simple embarrassment. It may be brought about, as Dawn suggested, by a social networking generation, unsure of the boundaries of interpersonal contact; triggered when someone is thought to over step the line. Sort of a mass version of short-term Asperger’s Syndrome when those only used to online interaction misread or simply misunderstand the boundaries.  As soon as those boundaries have been crossed, the emotion is felt, first by those around the person who crosses the barrier and soon after by that person, with a little more intensity. The negative aspects seem to die down quite quickly, as the amusement takes over; this is a reason it is not embarrassment. Firstly, you can be embarrassed about something no one else notices. This isn't the case of awkward. And secondly, to be embarrassed is rarely to be part of a funny moment. Sometimes hours, months, years, or even decades can pass, and remembering the embarrassing thing you did will still cause you to take a deep breath, and bite down on your knuckle (come on, we’ve all got one of those memories!). Awkward, however, seems to become funny almost straight away and remain funny thereafter. Nine times out of ten anyway.

It appears, therefore, to be a mix of group embarrassment and humour, but it is also tinged with and feelings of both belongingness and separation. The belongingness comes from the communal nature of that ‘awkward moment’, shared by those in it, and the loneliness is found in the individual who feels the awkwardness. As it becomes funny, it draws the individual and the group together, ultimately acting as a source of in-group bonding; some may even suggest a right of passage.

And that’s all I have so far, and that is somewhat phenomenological.

Towards an Emotion of Belonging

 

So what, you may ask? Well, Ute Frevert in Emotions, Lost and Found  (Central European University Press, 2011) suggested the idea of Lost and Found emotions, emotions that are lost from cultural view ether in intensity or altogether – such as ‘honour’, and some that change into another emotion with some shared characteristics but ultimately quite different specifics – such as the movement from ‘acedia’ to ‘melancholia’ to ‘depression’, or from ‘shell shock’ to “PTSD’. Awkward is a ‘found’ emotion, a new emotion, brought about by changes in the way people live and, as Monty Python said in the Life of Brian: ‘Reg, it’s perfectly simple, all you’ve got to do is go out of that door now ... It's happening, Reg! Something's actually happening, Reg! Can't you understand?!’

This is a call to arms to Anthropologists, Sociologists, Psychologists, Media Theorists, Modern Historians, those involved in cultural studies, and any other interested parties. Right now, there is the opportunity to study the birth of what may well be a brand new emotion. What this can tell us about emotions, across the disciplines, may be huge, or may be little, but it will certainly be interesting.

Lets do this, someone. Lets grasp the nettle, hook the fish from the barrel, and strap it across whatever strappy clichéd metaphor you can think of.

Or would that just be a little too awkward?