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Guilherme Mazui

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What is the Difference Between Emotion and Sentiment?

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Emotion and sentiment are related concepts, but they are not the same. Here are the key differences between the two:

  • Definition: Emotion refers to a complex psychological state, such as happiness, anger, jealousy, or grief. Sentiment, on the other hand, is a mental attitude that is created through the existence of an emotion. It can be predominantly negative or positive and is used to express certainty, doubts, agreement, or disagreement on a subject.
  • Nature: Emotions are intense, often uncontrollable affective states that can overwhelm us and cause us to lose our composure. Sentiments, however, are the combination of emotion and thought, representing our subjective experience of emotions.
  • Formation: Sentiments are formed as a result of a relationship with a social object, such as love, jealousy, or contempt, which revolve around another individual. Emotions, in contrast, are psychophysical reactions that take place automatically and spontaneously.
  • Consciousness: Emotions happen unconsciously and can appear and vanish rapidly. Sentiments arise when our consciousness intervenes, as we become conscious of our emotions and think about them.
  • Duration: Emotions are transitory states that come and go, while sentiments last longer in our body and mind, as long as we consciously dedicate time to think about them.

In summary, emotions are complex psychological states that we experience, while sentiments are our interpretation of these emotions, influenced by our thoughts and consciousness. Emotions are more intense and automatic, whereas sentiments are more subjective and longer-lasting.

On this page
  • What is the Difference Between Emotion and Sentiment?
  • Comparative Table: Emotion vs Sentiment

    • Comparative Table: Emotion vs Sentiment

    Here is a table comparing the differences between emotion and sentiment:

    Feature Emotion Sentiment
    Definition Emotion refers to a complex, subjective experience of feelings characterized by psychological and physiological changes. Sentiment refers to the attitude or opinion expressed in a piece of text, usually positive, negative, or neutral.
    Focus Emotion focuses on the intensity and complexity of feelings, playing a key role in decision-making. Sentiment focuses on the polarity of opinions or attitudes in text, such as positive, negative, or neutral.
    Analysis Emotion analysis goes beyond polarity to detect emotions like happiness, frustration, anger, and sadness. Sentiment analysis is the process of detecting positive, negative, or neutral opinions in text.
    Application Emotion detection is used in fields like psychology, marketing, and user experience design. Sentiment analysis is widely used in social media analysis, customer feedback analysis, and brand reputation monitoring.
    Methods Emotion detection systems often use lexicons (lists of words and the emotions they convey) or complex machine learning algorithms. Sentiment analysis techniques include text classification, machine learning algorithms, and natural language processing (NLP) tools.
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    Guilherme Mazui

    Guilherme Mazui is graduated in journalism from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and a master's degree in Communication from the University of São Paulo (USP). In addition, he has experience in advertising writing and has worked as a content editor in several companies.