A modern philosopher, Bertrand Russell, has made this comment on the belief of our rationality, "It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this." Of course, this was a long time ago and was a comment based on personal observation.
Nowadays, we need studies (which is a good thing if insight into human nature can be proven for consensus), so...
Study: Emotion rules the brain's decisions
The evidence has been piling up throughout history, and now neuroscientists have proved it's true: The brain's wiring emphatically relies on emotion over intellect in decision-making.
A brain-imaging study reported in the current Science examines "framing," a hot topic among psychologists, economists and political hucksters.
Framing studies have shown that how a question is posed — think negative ads, for instance — skews decision-making. But no one showed exactly how this effect worked in the human brain until the brain-imaging study led by Benedetto De Martino of University College London.
The brain images revealed the amygdala, a neural region that processes strong negative emotions such as fear, fired up vigorously in response to each two-second (on average) gambling decision. Where people resisted the framing effect, a brain region connected to positive emotions such as empathy, and another that activates whenever people face choices, lit up as well, seeming to duke it out over the decision.
"We found everyone showed emotional biases, more or less; no one was totally free of them," De Martino says. Even among the four participants who were aware they were inconsistent in decision-making, "they said, 'I know, I just couldn't help myself,' " he says.
Research into organizational decision making has shown a similar result...
Toxic Decision Processes: A Study of Emotion and Organizational Decision Making
Organizational research has increasingly recognized the emotional nature of organizations and organizational life. We now widely accept organizations as "emotional arenas" and acknowledge the emotionally saturated nature of people’s work experience. Even decision-making research, one of the most cognitively oriented domains of organizational behavior, shows a growing concern for the role of emotion. The emotionality of organizational decision processes can be very subtle, as in many highly routinized decisions, while other issues provoke intensely emotional decision processes. Potential mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing, for instance, can have dramatic effects on how employees feel about themselves and their organizations; knowing this can have significant impact on the way these decisions are made.
Given how emotions affect our decision making its obvious that the more balanced our emotions are the better our decision making skills will be. This approach is addressed in the concept of Emotional Intelligence in basic psychology. The following gives an outline of this approach...
Emotional Intelligence:
Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic.
1. Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.
2. Reasoning With Emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.
3. Understanding Emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or that he's been fighting with his wife.
4. Managing Emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management.
Note: The idea that emotional intelligence could be only inborn and not have anything to do with life experiences seems to contradict the idea that environment has any effect on behaviour. However, rather than arguing that point in this general article, I thought I would just point out that even simple changes in environment can change our emotional outlook and therefore our decision making.
For example: The following study looks at how a little emotional indulgence in luxury can skew decision making...
"Luxury-primed individuals tend to make decisions that are self-interested and arguably unethical."
A second, word-association experiment suggested that luxury does not necessarily induce "nasty" behavior toward others, but more indifference toward them.
The findings are sure to touch a nerve in an era of mega-sized corporate bonuses and the parallel currency of limousines, private jets and other pricey perks.
After all, it was John Thain's lavish $1.2 million office renovation, including an infamous $35,000 antique commode, that is remembered more than his salary in the final days of the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch.
The researchers said that, in practical terms, the same business meeting could reach different decisions when held at a fancy resort as opposed to in a modest conference room.
"Working in a business setting surrounded by money and luxuries might well have an effect on cognition and decision making," said Chua and Zou.
"Perhaps limiting corporate excesses and luxuries might indeed be a step toward getting executives to behave more responsibly."
Video - The Emotional Brain: An Introduction To Affective Neuroscience
[Edit - Following videos added September 18 2001]
1. Interview: A discussion of rational vs. emotional decision making
2. Interview: A look at how an emotion such as love can cloud your decision making skills (and a model made by a dating site based on some neuroscience to try and match people together)...
0 comments:
Post a Comment