Yesterday I wrote about the role of Pattern Recognition in our decision-making process. Today I look at ‘emotional tagging’.
D’amasio and others have suggested that when we make a decision, we store an associated emotion. The stronger the emotional tag, the stronger the memory. This is fine when the previous response is appropriate to the current situation. The problems arise when the current response is inappropriate and our emotions lead us astray.
More on the problems caused by inappropriate pattern recognition and emotional tagging in a future blog. Today, I want to cover one more important aspect of decision-making identified in ‘Think Again’: ‘one plan at a time’.
According to the authors, the process is:
- On accessing sensory input, our pattern recognition comes into play and scans our memory for previous similar patterns.
- At the same time, our brain tags the emotions associated with the experiences.
- (1) and (2) lead to an assessment that leads to action.
- We then look for confirming rather than disconfirming evidence.
- We look for a plan of action, one plan at a time.
- The action we take is the FIRST action that will be the first one our mind encounters that fits (1) and (2).
- We then imagine the results of the proposed action. If we encounter an imagined problem, the process repeats. If no problem appears, we act.
- This whole process takes place unconsciously and automatically.
On Monday, we consider the obstacles provided by this process.
Refer this blog post to a friend or colleague…
