Decisions, decisions

Neuroscience is certainly not among the usual topics for this blog, but I just read Jonah Lehrer‘s book How We Decide, and want to briefly highlight it here. Although do take my comments with caution, I am no expert in this field, so this should not be seen as a qualified review.

In How We Decide Lehrer writes about the neuroscience of decision making. Whether it is an airline pilot averting disaster, a quarterback throwing passes at the Super Bowl, or simply any of us buying strawberry jam or a new sofa – our brain takes decisions all the time. Commonly we tend to think that the best decisions are the rational ones. Look at all available options, ponder over the pros and cons and then take a decision. Well, not only would this be a painstaking process (the book describes such a case), it furthermore isn’t even a good thing to shut out emotions entirely. Psychopaths that lack any emotional response can do terrible things. And as tests with people tasting strawberry jams have shown, the more rational people are trying to be about it, the worse their choice gets because then they’re trying to include factors other than taste. On the other hand, yielding solely to your emotions can lead to pretty bad choices, too. Coming back home from shopping might be one of those moments to realize the penalty of taking too emotional decisions…

What fascinated me about Lehrer’s book is that it is very good at explaining the underlying science of decision making, how the prefrontal cortex balances emotional and rational thoughts. It illustrates horrible cases where this decision-making capability has gone wrong, but also describes cases of heroic and successful decisions, by fire fighters, airline pilots, poker players and so on. It was interesting to me to read how powerful and often correct underlying emotional feelings are, and consequently how important it is to consider these in the decision-making process. And then there are the moral implications of decisions, and the inconsistency at which we often digest information. How easy it is for us to dismiss objective conflicts with existing beliefs, ignoring obvious facts. Politics is an area where this is widespread. And I suppose that’s why the first impression is so important when meeting someone new, as it shapes our emotional response.

Either way, understanding the scientific aspect of decision making is certainly a much more informative read than most literature on this topic. So if you haven’t heard about the book yet, take a look. The book has been published back in 2009 already – yes, I am that far behind in my reading – but Lehrer has soon another book coming out, Imagine, which is on the way creativity works. In my view, after reading How We Decide the decision-making process of whether to give this latest book of his a try should be an easy one…

Reference:
(Note: in the UK the book is called The Decisive Moment, and that’s the ebook version that I read)

Lehrer, Jonah. How We Decide. Houghton Mifflin Co, 2009. 302 pages. ISBN: 9780618620111