Paul's Pensive Ponderances : Analysis

Now that we have examined the photographic evidence of Paul's emotional states, what have we learned? Naturally, only a small percentage of the available photographs can be displayed on this website, but the results are still notable.

Emotion Number Emotion Number

Happy
Pensive
Disgust
Plastered
Suave
Surprise
Apathy 10
9
8
6
6
5
4 Dumbfounded
Melancholy
Anger
Fear
Agitation
Hate
TOTAL 4
4
2
2
1
1
62

Perhaps surprisingly, Paul's natural reaction to being photographed, by the numbers, is happiness. This was surprising to the research team who had hitherto been under the belief that Paul was miserable in all of his photographs. It has been suggested that this may be because one often prefers happy photos of ones self, and is often wont to disperse them over those that may show moodier emotions. A study is underway to conclude whether this is the case or not. For that reason this group chooses to accept the next highest emotion: that of pensive thought. Perhaps he is thinking of the ramifications of this picture or contemplating how long this will cost him in purgatory. Whichever it is, it requires his devout concentration.

As suspected, disgust is the next prevalent emotion, as the true nature of Paul's photo feelings comes out. Plastered may seem to come next, but that's due to his tendency to become so much more camera friendly when intoxicated and not that being drunk is a common state by any means. This might show a freer side of Paul's fears that can only exist when his inhibitions are allowed to go by the wayside. However, tying with this is suave, quite the opposite despite many of the same gestures. This is a behavior that he sometimes exerts in a show-offish manner, one of gloating pride rather than making a complete boob of himself as the former often results in.

Surprise comes up next, followed closely by apathy, dumbfounded, and melancholy which all tie. Apathy and melancholy are negative states of emotion, surprise and dumbfounded is often Paul being caught off-guard by the photographer.

Coming up last are anger and fear, followed by agitation and hate. These extremely negative emotions are not likely to be felt by Paul when being photographed. Even then, the photos of fear were induced by feminine factors in the vicinity rather than photographic. Likewise, hate might have been caused by a poltergeist rather than true, personal animosity.

From this we may conclude that Paul's most frequent, natural, and raw emotional states to being photographed are those of thought and aversion. A greater study into Paul's tendencies to show happy photos over any others must be undertaken before those happiness pictures can be fully included in the final report. Finally, coming up last are the truly hostile feelings, indicating that Paul does not really hate or fear the camera, though he does possess a general rancor towards it. From this knowledge we can work to help him to better appreciate and accept the art and science of photography.