Engleski A - 2020. jesen, reading 3.

Over time, our rationality came to define us. (19)

. It was considered a characteristic that put us above animals. However, there’s a problem with the idea that we can be totally rational in our thinking – our minds don’t work that way.

It turns out that we weren’t made to be particularly rational or logical. Our mind is a network of different areas, many of which are involved with emotions. (20)

. Even when we try to be reasonable, these emotional impulses influence our judgement.

Some of the first evidence for this theory came from the work of the neurologist Antonio Damasio. In the early 1980s, Damasio began studying a patient named Elliot, who, after a brain tumour, lost the ability to experience any emotion at all. (21)

. It followed that a person without any emotions – like Elliot – should make completely rational decisions. But that isn’t what happened to Elliot. Instead, he just couldn’t make up his mind.

Elliot endlessly deliberated over irrelevant details, like whether to use a blue or black pen, or what radio station to listen to, or where to park his car. When choosing where to eat lunch, he would carefully consider the restaurant’s menu, seating plan and lighting scheme. He would then drive to each restaurant to see how busy it was. But all this analysis was for nothing. (22)

. It turns out that emotions are necessary for decision making.

And yet, this doesn’t mean that we should always trust our emotions. Although our gut feeling can often be astonishingly wise, it can also lead us to make decision-making mistakes. Why do we eat too much food, or spend too much money on our credit card, or make bad investment decisions? (23)

. When our emotions get out of control, the result can be just as devastating as having no emotions at all.

Another example of emotions affecting our decision making is what is known as ‘loss aversion’. This was first identified by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. They noticed that when people were offered a gamble on the toss of a coin in which they might lose \$20, they demanded an average payoff of at least $40 if they won. The pain of a loss was roughly twice as strong as the pleasure of a gain. (24)

. As Kahneman and Tversky put it, “In human decision making, losses loom larger than gains.”
It is common sense to assume that too much emotion causes us to make poor decisions. However, a reduced level of emotion is just as damaging to rational thought as heightened emotion. Therefore, emotion is as important as logic in making decisions.