The adaptive benefits conferred by complex emotional processing are truly monumental, and so often overlooked. We humans can instantiate vast numbers of emotions in our embodied brains, and thereafter, deeply experience and even regulate those emotions. Moreover, we can recognize and help shape the emotions of others. Through both of these intra- and interpersonal processes, we can forge the types of cooperative alliances that are necessary to establish large social groups, and beyond groups, entire societies brimming with powerful structures and ideologies.
