Inside Out is a film that describes mental processes and directly influences human decision-making through the character, Riley. In the movie, Riley is controlled by these characters- Joy, Fear, Anger, Sadness, and Disgust. Some other characters play a role in the mind of 11-year-old Riley- the imagination character Riley used to play with when she was 5 -years old. Behavioral economics is highlighted and represented in this film through these three emotions. The life forms of Joy, Sadness, and Anger each hold important value assumptions and reality assumptions which help in the completion of the whole story. This paper will discuss the reality and value assumptions of 3 characters from the movie inside out.
Value assumptions are implicit preferences for one value over another value in simple words Value assumptions reflect what you believe is good, bad, or should be done. Reality assumptions are beliefs about what is true and factual about this world or beliefs we hold about how the world is or how it works.
Joy is the leader of all emotions as being happy is the most important thing in the life of a child. Happiness (Joy) always brings positivity to your life. That is one of the value assumptions as being happy is good for you. In the movie Joy always try to take over the other characters and make Riley happy but sadness always put some obstacle to doing that. When Riley moved to California, she was not happy and missed her old place in Minnesota. At this point in time Joy realized that happiness is not always good as Riley was not happy when she moved to California. But Joy always tries to keep Riley happy no matter what the case is, Joy helps Riley in remembering the good old memories and Riley used to dream about those good memories and Joy helped Riley in making them happy again. Joy is another value assumption of Joy in the movie that remembering good old memories is always good. Joy has one reality assumption when he talks about the memories- having good childhood memories makes you confident and optimistic about self-growth. At the end of the movie, Joy finds out that he is not the only one who should be there with Riley as sadness and anger are also part of Riley’s life. So, Joy’s assumption goes wrong that remembering good old memories is always good or makes you feel better. This is another example of Joy’s reality assumption.
The second is Sadness and it is just the opposite of Joy. It is also one of the important characters in the movie as you cannot be happy throughout your life. Life will be boring if there are no ups and downs and some challenges. The same happened with Riley when she moved to California, she was not happy as things changed and the environment was new and different than she expected. Here’s when sadness comes and plays her role in the movie. Sadness brings a lot of negativity into Riley’s life replacing all the positivity (Joy) she had before in Minnesota. This is one of the value assumptions of sadness as it was not good for Riley, though it was not bad for her, it bought a lot of negativity and depression in her life. In the movie joy never allowed sadness to come into Riley’s life but there was a time when sadness jumped into her life and gave her new lessons for the future. This is a good example of reality assumption as sadness shows the reality of life and taught her new life lessons. Sadness stopped joy from keeping Riley happy all the time by changing her good old memories and reminding her that she’ll never meet her friends again, and she won’t be able to skate on the river like she used to do in Minnesota. Sadness also taught her the real meaning of feelings. When Riley moved to California, she was alone with no friends and her father was also busy setting up his new business. This is another example of value assumption as now at this point Riley knew the value of feeling and her first experience with all these feelings was not good. Following the value, assumption sadness had another reality assumption that Riley was able to express what she was thinking (her feelings) at that point in time.
The third comes Anger. Riley was a happy kid but when she moved to California she was alone and there was no one with whom she can share her feelings. She had no friends, and her parents were busy with their own work and this is when the anger came into Riley’s life. She started negatively taking everything. Her loneliness and sadness converted into anger and she started getting pissed at small things. One night she was having dinner with her family and her father was busy talking about his business with her mother and they didn’t ask how things are going in Riley’s life. At this point, Riley started arguing with her mother and father saying that they don’t care about her anymore. No one loves her. This is the value assumption of Anger that she realizes that her childhood was good in Minnesota and everything changed after moving. Following the value assumption, there is one reality assumption as these situations started helping her to develop into a teenager.