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The study of the evolution of emotions dates back to the 19th century. Evolution and natural selection has been applied to the study of human communication, mainly by Charles Darwin in his 1872 work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.[1] Darwin researched the expression of emotions in an effort to support his materialist theory of unguided evolution. He proposed that much like other traits found in animals, emotions apparently also evolved and were adapted over time.[2] His work looked at not only facial expressions in animals and specifically humans, but attempted to point out parallels between behaviors in humans and other animals.
According to evolutionary theory, different emotions evolved at different times. Primal emotions, such as love and fear, are associated with ancient parts of the psyche. Social emotions, such as guilt and pride, evolved among social primates. Evolutionary psychologists consider human emotions to be best adapted to the life our ancestors led in nomadic foraging bands.