This is essentially a transcript of a summary of Robert Greene’s Laws of Human Nature. This section covers the first law- of Irrationality.
The catch phrase is Master Your Emotional Self
You like to imagine yourself in control of your own fate, but you are largely unaware of how deeply your emotions dominate you. Rationality is the way to counteract this. We need to accept humans are fundamentally irrational creatures.
Emotions originate in the limbic section of the brain. Chemicals are released to arouse awareness of our surroundings. The problem arises when we try to translate these into words using the neocortex. The communication and translation between these two parts of the brain is often inaccurate- leading to irrationality. Emotions and cognition are not easily translatable. What seems like anger may come from a source of envy. Animals may fear for a short time, but we often dwell on ours. We are always feeling emotions, and they influence our thinking. Rational people are aware of this. Being able to mitigate your emotions from your thinking helps you to make rational decisions.
We need not strip emotions out of the equation though. Our emotions are often what put us in touch with a problem, and the feelings associated with overcoming it are what drive us to deal with problems.
Irrational people are not even aware of the role emotions are playing in their thinking. But there are ways to mitigate our irrational thinking.
1) Recognize Biases
The most common emotion is the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This pleasure principle in thinking is the source of all of our mental biases.
Confirmation Bias– looking for supporting evidence and ignoring counteracting evidence. Counteract this by playing devil’s advocate and finding opposing views.
Conviction Bias– how can it be wrong if it feels so right?
Appearance Bias– the ‘halo’ effect. If someone has a positive quality, we tend to attribute other positive qualities to them, even if it isn’t merited. Likewise, we will surmise negative qualities to someone who has a negative quality. But ultimately appearances are misleading.
Group Bias– we love and are affirmed when we find others that believe the way we do. Isolation from the group makes us depressed. Group-think is when we adopt ideas solely because they bring us comfort and a sense of belonging to the group.
Blame Bias– we prefer to blame others than look in the mirror
Superiority Bias– We like to think of ourselves as likeable, ethical, and rational. If it were actually true, we’d have world peace, but that’s not the case.
2) Beware of Inflaming Factors
Our minds latch on to emotions and we become reactive. Some factors that can inflame your irrationality:
Trigger points from early childhood
Sudden Gains or Losses
Rising Pressure or Stress– Under pressure, the primitive parts of our brains kick in.
Inflaming Individuals– certain individuals can trigger irrational thinking in both positive and negative ways.
Group Effect– getting caught up in what the surrounding group is doing.
3) Develop Your Rational Self
A) Accept irrationality. The emotional being thrives on being ignorant.
B) Examine why you reacted a certain way to a stimulus in your life.
C) Increase your reaction time.
D) Stop trying to change people. Our interactions with others are the major contributor to our emotional chaos. Accept them for what they are and try to work with what is presented.