If you’ve ever felt choked up at the end of a happy film, or found yourself tearing up at a wedding, scientists say you might have been feeling a newly described emotion – ‘kama muta’.
Kama muta describes a sudden, often overwhelming sense of being moved by an experience of love, connection, and belonging.
Scientists say that people feel kama muta when they experience a sudden moment of social connection.
That could be when you finally reunite with a loved one at the airport or when you experience a moment of religious connection during worship.
They explained it doesn’t matter whether you experience these moments yourself or whether you watch them happen to someone else.
That means you are feeling the same kind of emotion while watching a romcom as you do when you’re out on a romantic date.
Scientists now say that experiencing more kama muta in your life could be key to feeling more connection and greater satisfaction.
Professor Alan Fiske, a psychological anthropologist from University of California, Los Angeles, told the Daily Mail: ‘Through media, kama muta is readily available without limit. But people can and, I believe, should do more to seek out kama muta in everyday, person-to-person life.’
If you’ve ever teared up at a wedding or found yourself choked up at the end of a happy movie, scientists say you were probably feeling kama muta (stock image)
What is kama muta?
Although people have been feeling kama muta for millions of years, scientists have only recently started to rigorously categorise and study this elusive feeling.
In much the same way that the savoury flavour of umami was only scientifically recognised in the 1980s, despite being one of our five tastes, the term kama muta describes something we have all felt.
While there are descriptions that come close to capturing something of this emotion, experts say that science needs
Professor Thomas Schubert, a leading kama muta expert from the University of Oslo, told the Daily Mail: ‘The English language has the terms – “being moved”, “being touched”, “heartwarming”, and many more.
‘Some terms include too many other feelings, others don’t include enough. Science needs a bit more precision, so we borrowed the Sanskrit term “kama muta”.’
Although you might never have heard the name before, you’ve almost certainly felt this emotion before in your life.
Experts say that kama muta is best described as the sudden feeling of oneness, love, belonging, or union with an individual person, a family, a team, a nation, nature, the cosmos, God, or even a kitten.
Kama muta describes a sudden, often overwhelming sense of being moved by an experience of love, connection, and belonging. We often feel its strongly in moments of reunions with loved ones, whether we see them or are involved in them ourselves. Pictured: A family is reunited at Heathrow Terminal Five
Professor Schubert explains: ‘Kama muta typically arises when we witness or experience a sudden intensification of a communal relation – moments where social bonds are created, renewed, or deepened.
‘Common triggers include reunions after long separations, acts of unexpected generosity or sacrifice, moments of collective celebration, religious or spiritual experiences of union, watching others demonstrate profound love or devotion, and even certain music, films, or stories that evoke themes of connection and belonging.’
Like the other emotions, kama muta can come in degrees of strength.
You might feel a little tug of emotion watching a clip of a dog being reunited with its owners, or be moved to tears by an overwhelming sensation as you look into the eyes or your newborn child.
When kama muta is strong, it also has a physical component that manifests as powerful physiological reaction.
These include tears or feeling like you might cry, goosebumps, a warmth in your chest, and a lump in your throat.
Why is kama muta important?
Scientists think that kama muta is important because of the key role it may have played in our evolutionary history.
Kama muta often has a physical component, including a lump in the throat, warmth in the chest, or crying. This is why some people cry when they see videos of dogs being reunited with their owners. Pictured: Military dog Xanthe is reunited with former handler Sergeant Wade Alfson
This feeling likely evolved to motivate and reinforce the social bonds that gave ancient humans a competitive edge against other species.
‘An emotion that rewards experiences of connection would encourage us to seek out, maintain, and invest in the relationships and group memberships that kept our ancestors alive,’ says Professor Schubert.
Even the physical components of the emotion might play a role in this survival response.
Although scientists don’t fully understand the details, internal signs, such as a warmth in your chest, could be preparing your body for a certain course of action.
Outward signs like tears, meanwhile, are a signal to to other people that you are invested in the relationship or group and want to bond.
But beyond our biological evolution, there is also an important level of cultural evolution at play.
Professor Schubert says: ‘We think that practices that evoke kama muta evolved culturally. This gave us some aspects of music, theatre, religious services, cinema.’
People appear to be uniquely driven to seek out kama muta and share it with other people.
Kama muta occurs whenever we see or experience and intensification of social bonds. Even watching a romantic film like the Notebook (pictured) is enough to trigger the feeling of kama muta.
A wide variety of activities, from watching Pixar movies to joining a row crew, might be explained by this desire.
Feeling more kama muta can also have significant benefits for your personal life.
Studies have shown that experiencing more kama muta is associated with feeling closer to others, increased generosity, greater commitment to relationships, and experiencing more meaning in life.
After feeling the emotion, participants are far more likely to strongly agree with statements such as ‘I wanted to hug someone’ and ‘I felt more strongly committed to a relationship’.
Anyone who’s ever been to see live music, or saw Swifties swapping friendship bracelets during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, will know just how powerful that can be.
Luckily, getting more kama muta in your life is actually quite easy.
Since we experience the emotion when we witness other people experiencing moments of social connection, simply watching a movie or reading a book can spark the feeling.
Research suggests that it doesn’t really matter what kind of media you consume, whether it’s a great album or a religious sermon, so long as it scratches that itch for social bonding.
After feeling kama muta, people report feeling closer to others, increased generosity, greater commitment to relationships, and experiencing more meaning in life – which could explain the unique joy of seeing your favourite artist live. Pictured: Taylor Swift fans during the Eras Tour
Even watching cat videos can stimulate some levels of kama muta in many individuals.
Some people do naturally feel more kama muta than others, just like some people are naturally more prone to feeling anger or joy.
Professor Fiske points out that people who are have higher levels of empathic concern, the emotional response to seeing someone in need, tend to report higher levels of kama muta.
However, to feel the most powerful forms of kama muta, it isn’t enough to simply watch other people deepening their social bonds – you have to get out there and do it yourself.
Whether you join a local football team, church, run club, knitting circle, or just give your parents a call, these can all be great opportunities to get more kama muta in your life.
Professor Schubert says: ‘People can cultivate kama muta by being present and attentive during moments of connection – rather than rushing through reunions, celebrations, or expressions of love.’
