Rationality and emotion may seem antithetic. One is objective, the other subjective. One relies on mental models, the other on gut feelings. When it comes to making decisions, we tend to favour the reassuring formal process of rationality over the impulse of our emotions.
Emotions have three components
- Physiological: How your body reacts to the emotional experience, such as changes in heart rate, blushing or turning pale, goosebumps, sweating, stomach cramps
- Subjective: How you perceive the emotional experience, for instance funny, scary, sad, exciting
- Expressive: How you react to the emotional experience, such as smiling, crying, laughing, shouting
Emotions as a decision-making tool
Research suggests there are two main ways emotions affecting our decision-making:
Anticipated emotions: These are the expectations of how we will feel once gains or losses associated with our decision are experienced in the future
Immediate emotions: These emotions are immediately experienced while we are deliberating and deciding. They are more vivid than anticipated emotions
A survival mechanism
- Many emotions act as signals to the brain to take a specific action
- Disgust is a good indicator you should not eat something, as it may be rotten or poisonous
- If a food tastes nutritious, it’s probably full of calories and you should seek to find more
- Fear activates your stress responses and tells you to flee
- The problem is that these “survival mode” emotions don’t make the distinction between perceived and real threats
Emotions in social interactions
- Emotions provide valuable information which allows us to better understand each other
- Being able to read someone’s emotional reaction and being able to control your own emotional reaction-the expressive component of emotions-is essential to interpersonal communication
- Beyond facial expressions and body language, asking empathetic questions and listening to your interlocutor can offer more than cues as to how they feel
