Latest Issue of the MindBrainEd Think Tank + (ISSN 2434-1002) 4 MindBrained Bulletin Think Tank Conf Bias Apr 20 | Page 10

We like to think of ourselves as open, objective, and scientific, but that is a self-
delusion. We are not. We cannot be. Even with intense training, being objective is a
delusion because it is physically impossible, and here is why: emotion, the other
fantastic thing I learned about last year. Emotion is the driving force behind every
decision. It steers us through life.
Emotion, all through history, or at least until Goleman and Emotional Intelligence,
has been underrated. Neuroscientists like Damasio, Immordino-Yang and Barrett
have changed that. Emotion is not separate from cognition; it is cognition, and all
cognition involves emotion. I am not talking about feelings, like anger, jealousy,
envy, that we also refer to as emotions. These are physiological reactions to what is
subconscious emotional processing.
When you encode the memory of an event, the affect inherent in that experience
(feeling good or bad, aroused or subdued) is also encoded. Talking to her felt good.
Talking to him felt bad. Those emotional valences become part of my memories of
those interactions, and likewise, color our representations of those people. She
makes me feel good. He makes me feel bad. This aids my predictive processing
abilities. The next time we meet, I am better primed to manage the encounter. I will
be open and positive when I talk to her, but anxious and defensive when I talk to
him.
Those emotional valences then, are used to predict the good or bad things that might
happen in every situation and prepare us for fast reaction. We stay away from cliff
edges because danger is a part of our
internal representation of them. I feel
scared when I get near one, a
physiological reaction, and so I keep
away from it. That is how emotion
drives all our decisions and steers us
through life. They steer us away from
that cliff edge and towards that
Shimamura shop with the 50% off
sale (My wife says Japanese women
who patrol Shimamura for bargains
are called “Shima-pato”).
The “Only you”
line at the start?
That was your
brain talking.
Emotions then, are encodings that help us succeed in life.
They control all our decision-making, so that we decide
things that work for our benefit. Always. Even when we
engage in some seemingly selfless altruistic act, it was still
promulgated by self-serving emotion. The “Only you” line
at the start? That was your brain talking.
It makes sense then that emotion also steers our intellectual decisions: our beliefs,