The Real Science Behind the Animated Emotions of Inside Out 2

As a psychologist who has dedicated years to understanding human emotions and their impact on our lives, I find the concept of Inside Out truly captivating. The way it takes complex feelings like envy, anxiety, and boredom, and makes them accessible for children is nothing short of genius.

Originally released on June 14, 2024, this tale is being re-shared as we celebrate the debut of Inside Out 2 on Disney+, which is set for September 25, 2024.

In the finale of Pixar’s 2015 hit and Academy Award-winning movie “Inside Out”, 11-year-old Riley, alongside her emotions Joy, Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust, reached a resolution regarding her feelings. This led to Riley receiving an upgraded control board for her brain, which displayed a warning light labeled “Puberty”. Curious, Disgust inquired, “What’s ‘Poo-berty?'”, to which Joy responded, “It’s probably not important.

Approximately two years after the events in Pixar’s original film, or nine years in real time, Riley is 13 years old in “Inside Out 2,” a sequel set to be released on June 14. Inside her now teenage mind, four new emotions have taken up residence whether she likes it or not: Envy, a tiny, aquamarine entity with large, sparkling eyes; Embarrassment, a comically large, bright red figure who is always attempting to hide behind his hoodie; Ennui, a French-accented, limp noodle-like emotion that Riley refers to as “the boredom”; and Anxiety, with frazzled hair and arms laden with baggage. Additionally, the new feelings bring along a starry cast of voice actors, including Ayo Edibiri, Paul Walter Houser, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Maya Hawke.

Despite Envy’s sparkling eyes and Anxiety’s quizzical raised eyebrows giving off a cute and innocent vibe, these characters, along with everything else in this brain-based movie, are surprisingly intricate and deeply rooted in neuroscience. Although children might not grasp the scientific aspects initially, the film’s science is genuine, complex, and accurate. To ensure authenticity, Pixar has enlisted the help of experts in their production process.

Dr. Dacher Keltner is a distinguished academic who studied at Stanford and teaches at Berkeley, also serving as co-director of the Greater Good Science Centre. In addition to his academic duties, he works with the consulting team for Inside Out, which includes psychologists Paul Ekman and Lisa Damour. Dr. Keltner has a unique side job: ensuring that the storyline in the animated film Inside Out, created by Pete Docter who also wrote movies like Monsters, Inc. and Up! and is now Pixar’s chief creative officer, aligns with real-life neuroscience findings. This task is not always straightforward.

TIME called up Keltner at his headquarters at Berkeley College for a lively chat about returning to what is now, in Pixar’s sequel-focused present era, a franchise, how producers picked the first five and now four more core characters, why so-called “bad” emotions can be just as good as the rest and, once she’s old enough to drive a car, what could be next for the inside of Riley’s busy brain. 

TIME: You were a consultant on Inside Out 1 & 2. How did that even happen?

For three decades, Dr. Dacher Keltner has passionately taught an emotion course at Berkeley, a source of great satisfaction for him. In the past, before podcasts were popular, we’d record the course, and one day, Pete Docter stumbled upon it. One random call later, he said, “Hi there! I’m considering creating a film about emotions. Why not come visit?” The meeting was successful, leading to another invitation for Inside Out 2, and here we are embarking on this journey again.

Was there any part of you that thought, “A kid’s movie about neuroscience? This isn’t going to work?”

Indeed, that’s correct. While my lineage is deeply rooted in the arts, with my father being an artist and my mother a literature instructor, I must confess that I don’t excel in art myself. To be honest, when it came to visualizing how Pixar’s “Inside Out” would tackle the intricate workings of the brain, I struggled quite a bit, and I didn’t fully grasp it. My primary focus lies in the realm of science, where I address their queries. Initially, Pete asked me about “Inside Out”: How many emotions are there?

So…how many emotions are there?

Initially, I had assumed there would be twenty characters in the film, but Pete suggested we couldn’t do that artistically, so instead, we should select five. Interestingly, this reflects the development of emotion science from 1975 to 1995, which focused primarily on the initial five emotions from the first ‘Inside Out’: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and Joy. These were Paul Ekman’s contributions, who also served as a consultant for both films. As Riley grows into a teenager, her emotions become more complex. Teenagers tend to be very self-conscious and concerned about others’ opinions, which leads to the emergence of additional social emotions like anxiety, envy, and embarrassment – emotions I have personally delved deeper into in my research.

What did you learn about embarrassment?

I did all this laborious, boring research about whether embarrassment is an emotion. Does it have a distinct facial expression? Yes, it does. Does it have a distinct physiological process? Yes, the blush. What does it do? It makes us aware of other people’s judgments. Why do we have it? Embarrassment is an emotion within a social context that protects the norms that hold people in groups. If you violate a social norm, you blush, and that blush makes people forgive you. It tells people that you’re aware of social norms, you know you made a mistake, and you’re sorry. Embarrassment is painful to experience, but it’s essential to our social lives. 

What about envy? Is that also essential?

Envy is a feeling you get when other people have things you want. Maybe this is a promotion at work, or an invitation to a party or attention at the lunch table if you’re a 13-year-old girl. Envy is when someone else has something that you want and you feel that you deserve it too. But there’s new research coming out of Europe that differentiates a malicious sort of envy—maybe you undermine someone’s work or you gossip about them to try to bring them down—with a more benign form of envy where the envious person works harder to earn that reward. That kind of envy can be a really good thing and something that produces great effects. Envy in the film isn’t a villain, and they took great care to draw her that way: She’s adorable and she’s got these big eyes that sparkle.

How do you take a big, scary feeling like anxiety and make it cute and accessible for kids?

We all got very personal, first of all. I had a lot of anxiety for years and panic attacks all the time. But I truly believe the moment you accept your emotion is the same moment it stops being terrifying. It’s when you can say, “Yes, I’m panicking because I’ve got a hard job to do and it’s not going well and those are all good reasons for anxiety.” Then you realize and accept you’re just having a human response, and sure, your heart’s palpating but you’re not going to die. Having a little cartoon character that embodies all those feelings is so good for kids to see. I can’t tell you the number of parents who said, “My little guy loves that Anger character! He looks just like my kid feels.” 

Was Anxiety a particularly difficult emotion to portray in the film?

She was, because she’s more complicated than her counterpart, Fear. Fear’s concerned with immediate physical danger—an electrical outlet for a baby, for example—while Anxiety is projecting what might go wrong in the future. That’s a whole lot more to worry about. But her whole point is to look towards uncertainty and imagine potential dangers and work to prevent them. Even Anxiety has a purpose; it shifts our mind towards threats. Now some of these aren’t real, but some are very real. Climate anxiety, for example, is very real, young people feel it all the time, and it’s very important. It’s part of the challenge of development, but that doesn’t make it any easier for 13-year-olds. 

The last of the new characters, Ennui, seems kind of obscure, no? How’d she make the cut?

Ennui is going to be a favorite of parents, I think. There are certain emotions that teenagers are great at that drive parents crazy. The eye rolls, the attitude, the utter contempt—that’s Ennui, or boredom in French. I made a pitch for indignation, by the way, which I think would have been great too. Teenagers are so great at it and they’re the ones who are going to change the world. Boredom’s useful too though, because it’s when you disengage from everything else that you can engage in creativity. Boredom tells you when you should do something different. Boredom teaches you what matters to you. 

If Inside Out 3 is in our future, what emotions do you want to see next?

If Riley is either 15 or 16, that’s quite a significant stage in her life. She would be transitioning from her peer group into the broader society, with hopes for positive outcomes. To convey my feelings, I’d emphasize Indignation, but also Awe, Desire, and Compassion. I’ve spent three decades working with young women, and I can attest to their self-critical nature. They often harshly judge their emotional lives, thinking things like “I shouldn’t feel this way” or “I’m wrong for feeling that way“. However, this is not accurate. As long as one isn’t causing harm to others, I believe all emotions are valid. That’s the central theme of this movie.

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2024-09-23 23:08