What Inside Out 2 Teaches Us About Emotional Diversity

The paradox of striving for happiness and the power of embracing all of our emotions.

How often do we truly pause to reflect on our emotions?

In a culture that relentlessly pursues happiness, experiencing negative emotions like sadness and anxiety can make us feel like something is deeply wrong with us.

Inside Out 2 tells a beautiful and relatable story about our emotions, flipping the cultural script through powerful storytelling and cutting-edge research. With the help of scientific advisors like Dr. Lisa Damour, Professor Kristin Neff, Professor Dacher Keltner, and Professor Paul Ekman, the movie brings to light profound insights about our emotions—both positive and negative.

As a cultural psychologist and affective scientist, I was thrilled to see how thoughtfully the science was woven into the narrative. Here are the top lessons I drew from the movie, each backed by robust research.

The Paradox of Striving for Happiness

In Inside Out 2, we see Joy trying to keep Riley happy by pushing away any memories that feel negative. This desire to maximize positive emotions and minimize negative ones is especially strong in the US compared to other cultures, such as in East Asian contexts, as found by Professor Jeanne Tsai (my PhD advisor!).

But striving to feel good all the time can be counterproductive. Professor Iris Mauss and her colleagues have found that those who value happiness the most and strive hardest for it are less able to experience it and more prone to depression, loneliness, and anxiety. In the movie, the more Joy pushed Anxiety away, the stronger Anxiety became, perfectly illustrating this pattern.

Does this mean we should abandon the pursuit of positive emotions? Not quite. Professor Barbara Fredrickson has shown that positive emotions do more than just make us feel good—they broaden our minds, boost our creativity, and make us more resilient to stress. Her research suggests that as a general rule, we should strive to have at least three positive emotions for every negative one to flourish (though the exact ratio is debated).

At the same time, too much positive emotion can also be harmful. Professor June Gruber and her colleagues have found that consistently high levels of positive emotions can have negative consequences, from increased risk-taking to reduced empathy for others. So, if positive emotions have benefits (in moderation) but striving for them can be counterproductive, what should we strive for?

The Power of Embracing Emotional Diversity

At the end of Inside Out 2, all of Riley’s emotions come together and embrace Riley’s sense of self. This scene embodies a deep appreciation for the role that all emotions play in making Riley who she is. This message is grounded in science, too: Professor Jordi Quoidbach and his colleagues have found that experiencing a diverse array of emotions (what they call “emodiversity”) is linked to better mental and physical health.

So rather than pushing away emotions that feel “bad,” we should recognize them as messengers of our current needs: Sadness might signal a need for time and space to heal, while boredom might indicate that you’re ready to explore something new. By paying attention to what our emotions are trying to tell us, instead of pushing them away, we can learn to be kinder to ourselves when these feelings come up. Similarly, when we notice a strong emotion in someone else, we can take the time to understand what may have given rise to such emotions and consider their underlying needs with empathy and care.

This emphasis on noticing and embracing our emotions resonates deeply with us at Flourish Science, and we also recognize that it’s a skill that needs to be nurtured day by day. That’s why we placed the “Mood Story” feature at the heart of our Flourish app, providing a dedicated space where users can take a break to connect with themselves for daily emotional wellness and self-compassion.

With a warm, friendly interface that is responsive to users’ general mood, users can take a moment to acknowledge and honor their emotions, reflect on what made them feel this way, and receive a compassionate note from Sunnie, the science-based AI buddy.

We Don’t Have to be Controlled by Our Emotions

While Inside Out 2 offers many valuable lessons, there were a few things I wished were explored further. One is the representation of different kinds of positive emotions, like calm or gratitude, and the complexity of mixed emotions. According to work by Professor Barbara Fredrickson, there are at least 10 positive emotions, while joy is just one of them. (In case you’re wondering, other positive emotions include gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love!)

Most importantly, I felt the movie could have emphasized that Riley wasn’t entirely at the mercy of her emotions.

The truth is, we all have the power to regulate our emotions. For instance, Professor James Gross has identified cognitive reappraisal as a particularly effective emotion regulation technique. The idea is that by reframing a negative situation (e.g., “I’m so nervous about my presentation” to “my nerves mean I care about this topic”), we can change the way it makes us feel. In fact, James Gross and others have found that the simple belief that we can control our emotions (i.e., “emotion controllability”) is linked to lower anxiety and depression symptoms.

So I wish Inside Out 2 had highlighted that Riley also had agency over which emotion was at her console! Maybe they are saving that plot for Inside Out 3 😉? Of course, given the constraints of storytelling, I recognize it’s impossible to pack everything into just one movie.

Thankfully, it is something we can incorporate into a mobile app, and in a way that promotes positive emotional habits and skills. As shown in the video, after “depositing” a Mood Story, a user can further explore their thoughts and feelings with Sunnie through an interactive chat. Along the way, Sunnie will provide relevant scientific knowledge and practical actions to help people cultivate self-compassion, gain effective coping strategies, and navigate life’s ups and downs to develop more emotional balance and personal growth.

While the Flourish app is still very much a work in progress, many users have shared heartwarming stories about how this guided flow (what we call the “123 of Emotion Regulation”) has helped them manage their own emotions. For example, in a recent user interview, someone told us that:

“Just being able to have a place to write down what was going on was something that I am so grateful for. On top of that, receiving a simple yet encouraging response meant the world to me… Just asking how I was feeling today had the power to improve my mood entirely… Sunnie probably played a part in keeping me from making rash decisions powered by my overwhelming emotions, and I am so thankful for that.”

Ultimately, the magic of Inside Out 2 lies in how it embeds science-based insights into its heartfelt storytelling. I have no doubt it will help many people see their own emotions in a completely new light, and we are truly excited to take this further and help people embrace their feelings, practice emotional awareness, and develop emotion regulation skills in everyday life.

What were your takeaways from the movie? Do any of these insights resonate with you? Please share your thoughts and join the conversation! 🌱

Here’s a photo of our team at the theater, taken right after we finished watching Inside Out 2 together!

P.S. We had a blast reflecting on our favorite characters and moments from the movie as a team! You can check out our team discussion here.

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References

Ford, B. Q., & Gross, J. J. (2019). Why beliefs about emotion matter: An emotion-regulation perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 74-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418806697

Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367-1377.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Updated thinking on positivity ratios. American Psychologist, 68(9), 814–822. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033584

Fredrickson, B. L., & Losada, M. F. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60(7), 678–686. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.7.678

Gross, J. J. & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348-362.

Gruber, J., Mauss, I. B., & Tamir, M. (2011). A dark side of happiness? How, when, and why happiness is not always good. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(3), 222-233. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611406927

Mauss, I. B., Tamir, M., Anderson, C. L., & Savino, N. S. (2011). Can seeking happiness make people unhappy? Paradoxical effects of valuing happiness. Emotion, 11(4), 807-815.

Quoidbach, J., Gruber, J., Mikolajczak, M., Kogan, A., Kotsou, I., & Norton, M. I. (2014). Emodiversity and the emotional ecosystem. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2057–2066. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038025

Sims, T., Tsai, J. L., Jiang, D., Wang, Y., Fung, H. H., & Zhang, X. (2015). Wanting to maximize the positive and minimize the negative: Implications for mixed affective experience in American and Chinese contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(2), 292-315.

Somerville, M. P., MacIntyre, H., Harrison, A., & Mauss, I. B. (2024). Emotion controllability beliefs and young people's anxiety and depression symptoms: A systematic review. Adolescent Research Review, 9(1), 33–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-023-00213-z