It turns out that if you pick emotionless, whatever happiness state you start out on with a planet is the one you're stuck with. Your happiness state wil display 'emotionless', but the game is storing your actual value, just not applying any changes to it.
This is fine for new planets that you colonize, but can cause you problems if you tend to blockade enemy planets before capturing them, or other similar situations where you're taking over an angry populace. Once they've been 'assimilated', they don't become 'emotionless', they just stay ticked off.
With the future change in new population happiness, I think the point cost for emotionless should definitely be lowered.
-Drake
BTW, that does makes the description accurate I suppose, if not what one would expect.
[This message has been edited by Drake (edited 11 February 2001).]