THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY
In 2009, with news of American and British troop casualities in
Afghanistan a near-daily occurrence, a team of army psychologists was
busy studying the ability of soldiers to spot the “improvised explosion
devices” responsible for so much of the carnage. Using computer-based
tests and mock ground-exercises, the psychologists found there were
huge differences between individuals in their ability to spot the tell-tale
signs of a hidden device. Usually it was the more experienced personnel
who were more proficient at the tasks, but they often couldn’t explain
what had alerted them, beyond saying that they’d had a hunch. Recalling
a real-life incident, one sergeant in the US army told the New York Times:
“My body suddenly got cooler; you know, that danger feeling.”
Indeed, this army research tallies with a classic study by neuroscientist
Antonio Damasio, which showed that people’s emotional reactions seem
to guide their decision-making even before they realize it. Participants
were presented with four piles of cards: those in piles A and B carried
rewards of $100 each, but every tenth card had a penalty of $1250. Mean-
while, cards in piles C and D only brought rewards of $50, with every tenth
card bringing a penalty of $250. The participants’ challenge was to earn
as much money as possible. Most people eventually caught onto the fact
that it’s better in the long run to take cards from piles C and D. However,
Damasio’s important finding was that before participants began consist-
ently taking cards from these piles, they showed a heightened emotional
reaction, as betrayed by their sweaty fingers, as they reached for piles A
and B. It’s as if their intuitive system – their gut instinct – already knew
they were making a mistake before their conscious selves did.
Taken together, the army studies and the classic card-game research
show that far from our emotions making us irrational, they sometimes
improve our decision-making. So it’s not surprising to learn that when
patients with damage to the front of their brains, who had normal intel-
ligence but impaired emotions, played the card game, they persisted with
taking from piles A and B. In fact these patients weren’t just poor at the
card game, they were hopeless at making decisions in real life too.
The idea that emotions can make us more rational seems to fly in the
face of common sense. Traditionally, emotions are seen as what makes
us warm-blooded and fallible rather than mechanical and error-free.
When rage or fear overwhelms the human veneer of cultured calm,
we’re reminded of our base, animal roots. But to view emotion as
something that needs reining in, so that the intellect can assume total
control, is to miss the point that emotions are an evolutionary adapta-
tion with numerous benefits.
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