Decisions: Reason or Emotions?How do you react to a headline that reads: Emotion rules the brain.Wait – then it says – A brain-imaging study reported in the August,
2006 professional journal – Science – states the brain's wiring relies
dominantly on emotion, not intellect - in large and small decision-making.Dr, Benedetto De Martino of University College, London (G.B), lead
scientist, used fMRI evidence to indicate which structures in the brain
react to decision-making.When making a decision causes us either fear, anxiety or worry, our
Amygdala, located in the Limbic System, is the boss. Forget logic and
reason, our thinking process is locked-down when negative emotions
are activated.Imagine you are at work and you feel insulted by not getting the promotion
you expected. You see mental-movies of assassinating the CEO, followed
by images of quitting your job as divisional v.p. on-the-spot.Clear reasoning is out of the question – your Amygdala has taken over
your behavioral controls. Your heart is quick-beating, your blood-pressure
has doubled, and your breathing is shallow.It is fight-or-flight time, meaning your Parasympathetic Nervous System is running your behavioral show – adrenaline (epinephrine), not your reason.Positive EmotionsWhat happens when you are happy, pleasantly excited, and won the
promotion to Assistant to the CEO? Your behaviors are based on emotion.Empathy – emotional understanding of another's feeling or problem;
compassion, rapport and humanity, is a positive emotion.You see an old lady slip on the sidewalk, and she cannot get up. Forget
what you do – you feel her pain, discomfort and embarrassment, right?Once again it is not logic and reason, but your emotions at work.
This time different brain structures are involved – the left superior frontal
gyrus, left-middle temporal gyrus, and your orbitofrontal gyrus.What is not dominant to direct your behaviors is your prefrontal cortex,
or your ACC, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. These structures are the
programmers of your planning, organizing and goal-setting – thinking and
analyzing.You are not in command of your decision-making using thinking and
analysis – you have been headed-off at the pass by your feelings and
emotions.We polled over one-thousand on whether logic and reason or emotions -
dominated their personal behaviors; over 92% voted for thought and analysis.
And they are wrong.Dr. De Martino said – Everyone shows emotional biases, more or less;
no one was totally free of them.Limbic SystemThe seat of our emotions is the Limbic System. The Amygdala, hippocampus,
hypothalamus, and pituitary gland are the big players, and operate like
our instincts, on auto-pilot.Our Limbic System is deeply involved with memory, and works hand-in-hand
with our prefrontal cortex, our executive brain structure. Its primary function
is to get us to react automatically and immediately, to save our lives.Remember, your Limbic System is dominant in motivation – it decides what
gets you hot-and-bothered and goal-driven. It operates memory-formation
through the Hippocampus, and retrieves memories because of its involvement
with long-term permanent associations.How?The Limbic System integrates emotional states with permanent memories
of stored physical sensations. When you engage in activities that are similar
to previous experiences that were either negative or positive, you activate
your Amygdala.Imagine lying on a blanket in the grass, the sun tanning your back.
You hear a click, turn your head and see a curved something. Your Limbic does not
wait for you to gently launch a police investigation.It snaps you to attention, gets you crawling in the opposite direction, and pumps a dose of oxygen and glucose to energize your next behaviors. How come?It remembers a snakebite experience when you were a kid, and sounds the emergency alarm for fight-or-flight. It turns out to be a twisted stick, but it could
have saved your life if it was a poisonous rattler.Dr. DemasioWorld-famous neuroscientist, Dr. Antonio Damasio, UCLA – believes decision-making is complex, and combines both cognition – thinking and analysis - and emotion. Would you want Dr. Spock of the Starship Enterprise, responsible for
your decision-making?Dr. Damasio reminds us that research on people who have lost their emotions through accidents or disease, cannot make necessary decisions. Can you picture staring at a menu for a half-hour - deciding between the steak and the lobster?Our choices in life are driven by a brain structure containing a file of emotional memories of past decisions. Our brain compares our memories of past experiences, to the present problem and the need to make a safe decision.Remember this – what makes us human, rational and thoughtful, is tempering our
emotions in a positive way – not vetoing the feelings. It is standard to measure our
feelings against our logical conclusions, and mix-and-match for a final-decision.You did not strangle your CEO when he gave the promotion to the other guy, you
vetoed that emotional-behavior. You left yourself an option – by shaking hands with
the victor, and telling her you were there to help her be successful.You might have mentally visualized her being struck-down by a Mack truck, but smiled, and left. We have both volition and time to show our cards. Truly, only losers act impulsively and live to regret it.EndwordsThere is no sin nor loss of face in admitting decision-making is dominated by our
emotions. The game is about our behaviors, not labeling.It is a scientific fact – proven beyond cavil – that our behaviors are strongly (51%),
influenced by our feelings. If our decision-making is more than half based on our
emotions – why is the subject totally ignored by our educational system - in the learning process.Should we be educated about our brain and its decision-making programming?See ya,copyright © 2006
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.orgAuthor of Speed Reading for Professionals, published by Barron's;
former business partner of Evelyn Wood, creator of speed reading;
graduating 2 million, including the White House staffs of four U.S.
Presidents.
Keyword : learning, training, speed reading, personal growth, self-improvement
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