Was love invented by European poets in the Middle Ages or is it part of human nature? Will winning the lottery really make you happy? Is it possible to build robots that have feelings? Emotion: A Very Short Introduction explores the latest thinking about the emotions, drawing upon a wide range of scientific research, from anthropology and psychology to neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Anthropologists have begun to question their previous views on the cultural relativity of emotional experience; cognitive psychologists have abandoned their exclusive focus on reasoning, perception, and memory, and are rediscovering the importance of affective processes; and neuroscientists and researchers in artificial intelligence have also joined the debate.

Dylan Evans is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Projection Point, a global leader in risk intelligence solutions. He has written several popular science books, including Risk Intelligence: How to Live with Uncertainty (2012) and Placebo: The Belief Effect (2003), and in 2001 he was voted one of the twenty best young writers in Britain by the Independent on Sunday. He received a PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics in 2000, and has held academic appointments at King's College London, the University of Bath, and the American University of Beirut. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.