Do We Have a Duty To Feel Emotions?

Emotions are a really, really important thing. They somehow find their way into our faces, our bodies, our conversations, and sometimes our tweets. Humans take in stimulus, and then project to fellow animals how we’ve reacted to that stimulus internally, plastering it externally for all the world to read, so we can all better interact with one another. Feeling emotions is how we form bonds, relationships, and complicated social structures.

But what happens when you don’t feel emotions? Say something rather unfortunate happens to someone else, which doesn’t affect you, and you simply don’t react. Are you a bad person? Do you have a duty to feel sorrow when something upsetting happens to someone else? Should you be happy when a friend is happy? How does this responsibility (or lack thereof) affect relationships and social systems?