For a long time, emotions have been treated as something visceral, something which comes "from the gut" rather than the mind. This mode of thinking has ancient roots. In the Western tradition of political thought, it is still very common to contrast "reason" with "emotion";
on the one hand stands ordered, rational reason (something to be aspired to and admired), on the other the pull of irrational, emotional impulses (something to be avoided). This is implicit in Freud's distinction between the id and the superego, for instance. We are very much accustomed to thinking of emotion as something detrimental to informed, factually based decision-making.