Emotion 1: Emotional cause and effect

Looping loops

In an emotion-behaviour loop, a trigger causes an emotion which causes a behaviour... which often creates a new trigger.

In this way, loops create a chain of cause and effect.

If you think about your own experiences in life, you will probably see these chained loops happening all the time, whether or not you’re aware of them in the moment.

How does it look in a story when one loop leads to the next?

Let’s return to our scene from Usagi Yojimbo.

Depending on how you count them, there are 2 or 3 loops in this spread. 

Can you find them, and can you identify the trigger, emotion, and behaviour for each one?

(Remember you don't need to write an essay—study the spread, find the loops, and then jot down some notes.)

Spread from Usagi Yojimbo comic in which Susano-o leaves to find a serpent, is startled by it in the woods, is terrified, but then fights back
This spread has 2 or 3 emotion-behaviour loops in it.
What are the emotion-behaviour loops in this spread?

This is a bit of a trick question because the panel begins with the end of a loop from the previous page of the comic, after which it shows two more loops:

End of loop 1

  • Trigger: ???
  • Emotion: Confidence?
  • Behaviour: Susano-o goes looking for serpent.

Loop 2

  • Trigger: Susano-o hears a noise.
  • Emotions: Confusion.
  • Behaviour: Pulls back on horse.

Loop 3

  • Trigger: Attacked by monster.
  • Emotions: Fright then determination.
  • Behaviour: Pulls back, then leans forward and draws sword.

What would have been the trigger and emotion in Loop 1? We can imagine: hearing tales of a monstrous serpent raiding the village, feeling angry and determined to put an end to the terror… which leads to riding into the forest to look for it.

You can see how each loop leads to the next.

This is life in general and story in particular: a continual series of cause and effect loops. 

One thing about an action scene like this: the loops can happen fast because the time between action and reaction is short.

Here’s another example from Raina Telgemeier's Drama in which the loops are more stretched out:

Panel from Drama comic in which Callie asks how Greg is doing but he blows her off because his ex-girlfriend is talking to him again
Greg talks about his ex and Callie leaves upset
What are the emotion-behaviour loops in this spread?

In answering this question, you may have started to notice that each character has their own loops—so whose loop are we talking about?

Let’s focus on the girl, Callie.

Loop 1

  • Trigger: See Greg.
  • Feeling: Good.
  • Behaviour: Touch Greg’s arm, tell him it's good to see him, and ask how he’s doing.

Loop 2

  • Trigger: Greg yanks his arm away and says he’s fine in a way that’s obviously not fine.
  • Emotions: Confusion.
  • Behaviour: Pull back and wait.

Loop 3

  • Trigger: Greg doesn’t look at her.
  • Emotions: Concern.
  • Behaviour: Ask what’s wrong.

Loop 4

  • Trigger: Greg starts going on and on about his supposedly ex-girlfriend and friendzones Callie.
  • Emotions: Distraught.
  • Behaviour: Hide feelings, agree to catch up later, get out of there.

Next

In the last example we ran into this problem of point of view.

Let's take a closer look at this issue of point of view and understanding whose loop we are talking about at any given moment.

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