 Although there are analogies between this view and psychological constructionism, especially with respect to the emphasis on emotions as emergent and flexible phenomena, Colombetti denies that conceptual acts bring about emotions, assuming that “sense making” is a much more primitive phenomenon available from bacteria to humans. Creatures engage in “sense making” when they assess the environment in terms of whether it promotes their self-maintenance, and act so as to improve their viability within the environment, as a bacterium does when swimming away from a noxious substance.