Read an exclusive interview with Jonah Lehrer
ONE of the most enduring depictions of the human mind, favoured by thinkers from Plato to 20th-century psychologists, is as a well of perpetual conflict between reason and emotion, where good judgement relies on using rational thought to overcome the impulsiveness that would otherwise lead us astray.
We now know better: the understanding that emotions play a crucial role in decision-making – and that people who sustain damage to the emotional parts of their brains are plagued by pathological indecision – has been one of the great revelations of recent cognitive science. The key question is when and how far we should rely on feeling when making choices. Since our emotional response system evolved in an environment very different to today’s, it is bound sometimes to lead us astray.
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‘s mission in The Decisive Moment is to help us determine when to override our instincts and when to let them run. If you are up to speed with the latest findings of psychology and neuroscience you will be familiar with much of his material, but as a popular distillation of the science of decision-making it is second to none.
His broad reach takes in the behavioural neurology of to the social psychology of , and he mixes hard analysis with fascinating case studies, in the style of and others – indeed, he and Gladwell mine similar fields of human endeavour to show how humans respond to the unpredictable, notably American football and the piloting of aircraft.
Some of his illustrations are compelling. He shows how a radar operator with the British navy during the first Gulf war prevented the probable deaths of hundreds of sailors by correctly identifying a blip on a radar screen as an enemy missile, even though it followed a path almost identical to that of returning American fighter jets. Something about that blip looked – or felt – different, even though the discrepancy was so minor that not even the operator could explain afterwards what it was. Yet his intuition won out.
This leads to one of Lehrer’s interesting recommendations: trust your emotions in situations where you have had a lot of experience, since this is when the dopamine neurons in your anterior cingulate cortex are best equipped to warn you of any deviations from their established patterns. In novel situations, on the other hand, such as when playing a new game or considering a risk to your health, it is a good idea to take a step back and do the maths, even though your emotional brain will tell you it knows better.
The Decisive Moment is a great read. It might even improve your life. Not many books offer both.
Read an exclusive interview with Jonah Lehrer
The Decisive Moment: How the brain makes up its mind
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