The Plutchnik Model of the Emotions

Plutchnik used multi-dimensional scaling to classify emotions according to their similarities. Subjects were given pairs of emotion describing words and asked to rate their similarity. From these judgments, a map of emotions emerged and were arranged as: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary emotions.

The primary emotions shown in the outer circle are composed of two distinct secondary emotions. For example, Surprise is composed of Curiosity and Alarm. Acceptance is composed of Curiosity and Love, etc..

In a like manner, each secondary emotion is composed of it's two tertiary emotions. For example, Misery is composed of Shame and Pessimism. Pride is composed of Dominance and Optimism, etc.. ...Plutchnik, 1993

During the Decoding.com research process, emotions that make up the first imprint experiences are carefully extracted and tabulated. Using Plutchnik's emotional wheel, ancillary emotions are noted and used to design a desired experience surrounding a company's product or service.

For example, if the emotion JOY was found to be part of a desirable product imprint, Plutchnik's chart would indicate to us that PRIDE and LOVE are secondary emotions to joy and OPTIMISM, DOMINANCE, and DELIGHT are the tertiary emotions. Knowing this allows a company to create an emotional product experience by "building" the emotion of JOY from the "ground floor." Designing the supporting secondary and tertiary emotions to augment the primary emotion, allows a company to create a rich emotionally structured experience for it's customers.

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