Figure 6.15: A model of primary emotions Robert Plutchik has proposed that the spectrum of all emotions can be represented by a cone with eight sectors. The vertical dimension of the cone represents emotional intensity. The eight sectors represent eight primary emotions, arranged such that similar emotions are next to one another and opposite emotions are on opposite sides of the cone. In the exploded view of the cone, with the sectors laid out flat, the emotion labels in the spaces between sectors represent mixtures of the adjacent two primary emotions. (This model of emotions may appear similar to the model of affects shown in Figure 6.14, but it was developed from a different set of observations and premises; the two models are not directly comparable.)

(With permission from Plutchik, 2001.)