I thought the questions and responses that came up during class last night were quite interesting, especially around issues of choice and happiness. I was pleased and surprised to see that the next episode of Radiolab is dedicated to just this topic, and include interviews with Malcolm Gladwell (New Yorker Magazine), John Bargh (social psychologist, Yale), Oliver Sacks (Neurologist, Columbia), Barry Schwartz (social/cognitive psychologist, Swarthmore), and Antoine Bechara (Neuroscientist, USC). I highly recommend listening to it, and would like to hear your reactions on Tuesday.
CHOICE
We turn up the volume on the voices in our heads and try to make sense of the babble. On a journey around the country to understand how emotion and logic interact to guide us through our options, we ponder how we get through the million choices and decisions we make every day. Forget free will, some important decisions could come down to a steaming cup of coffee.
1 comment:
Is Free Will Really Free?
In this radio clip the author of Blink and The Tipping Point discusses free will. The Tim Wilson poster experiment with college students is mentioned again as it was in the Ted Talks we saw in class. How is impressionistic art sophisticated and kitten art unsophisticated? I think that there was an underlying current of elitist-ness behind his sophisticated/unsophisticated general distinction. How does one bias a person into “unsophisticated choices.” I think that it is hard to measure the bias a researcher may have on their participant. How can you distinguish between your bias and the participant’s bias? If the feelings in your gut drive your decisions how is free will still possible? Do we really have control over the decisions we make? Or are we lead/driven by our underlying emotions? This question leads me to another radio clip…
Overcome By Emotion
What is “pure logic?” I don’t think that logic can ever be pure unless it is treated as godly and therefore unquestioned. But if it is religious it cannot be purely logical. How can one be a “happy chooser?” There is no blanket rule to follow that will solve the question of happiness. What does logic have to do with happiness? I say nothing. They give an example of this: Elliot, a patient, had a tumor in his orbital frontal cortex removed. As a result he started to analyze everything from what pen to use to what cereal to eat…He became pathologically indecisive and lost his wife, his job, everything. His demeanor was described as numb in speech though articulate. This sounds like a form of autism called aspergers to me. I have known people who were diagnosed with it. It made them very detached from emotion and much too focused on debating the insignificant details of life with themselves and the people surrounding them. When Elliot was cut off from his emotional side it lead to the question: do emotions hinder rationality? No. When there are too many options in each day-to-day activity nothing can be accomplished and there is no more room for satisfaction. Guttural emotions are much more valuable and reliable. How else do we make decisions? Empirical and rational thoughts take a back seat to organic and passionate feelings. The brain notices patterns. Our autobiographical memories affect our subconscious, which in turn affects our deeply felt emotions. We remember when we touched the stove or felt nauseous or felt horny. Any distinct emotion in the past has an affect on similar exposure to the cause of it.
Post a Comment