To the degree that emotions facilitate actions to meet needs, it is perhaps generally true that more intense needs tend to be associated with the experience of more intense affective states. The difference between the typical level of fear associated with the experience of combat and that associated with, for example, snow skiing, reflects (albeit imperfectly) the difference in risk in the two situations, and hence differences in the need to alter some aspect of the situation to reduce the risk. We suggest that if the experience of more extreme emotions is likely to be associated with more pronounced needs, it is likely also associated with more unusual, or perhaps extreme, behavioral choices. Intensely negative experiences of fear may propel an individual to take radical steps to alter their current situation, whether through some version of flight or some version of fight. Intensely positive experiences of attraction or of sexual need may propel an individual to take the risky step of approaching someone to try to initiate a romantic relationship.
