BarroMetrics Views: Our Decision-Making Processes II
Neurologists have mapped our brains and have found that our decision-making processes are dominated by the prefrontal cortex and the unconscious, lead by the limbic system. Figure 1 shows the relationship of the two. David York made the comment that if you compare the size of the two, the prefrontal cortex is one cubic foot and the unconscious is the milky way.
FIGURE 1 Prefrontal Cortex and the Limbic System
Let’s do a quick comparison between the two systems:
- The prefrontal is energy inefficient. Whenever we use it, we need massive amounts of oxygen and glucose. It also requires effort. Many times the limbic system equates effort with pain. Why is this observation important?
- Because the human brain is hired-wired to move towards pleasure and away from pain. What is important is the brain’s perception of an event and not whether or not, in reality, the event leads to pleasure or pain.
- Secondly, the brain places more weight on immediate pleasure and less weight on events still to occur. As a result, if left in ‘default mode’, the brain looks upon effort as an energy consuming, painful event to be avoided. This has important consequences for our decision-making system.
- But before we tackle that…, there is one more difference I want to mention. The prefrontal cortex finds it quite an effort to imagine things that are yet to come. This is why prioritizing and planning can be so difficult.
(More tomorrow)
Refer this blog post to a friend or colleague…
