Emotion, Choice, and Reasons

Cognitive Neuroscience What can the brain tell us about decision making? Frontal Lobe damage –Phineas Gage –Planning problems –Difficulty connecting emotions to objects

Why does this matter? Emotions signal evaluations –Somatic markers Emotions emerge from motivational system –Motivational system drives action –Evaluations will not affect action if they are disconnected

Dual systems in reasoning Lots of two system theories (Sloman, 1996) Intuitive system –Reasoning based on intuition What is intuition? Rule-based system –Reasoning based on logic –Reasoning based on other explicit rules Seems true of effects we have discussed –Conjunction fallacy We still feel the appeal of the fallacy even after we know why it is wrong

How do reasons affect choice? Reasons reflect rule-based system People may make choices because they have reasons –Options that are easier to justify influence decisions –Attraction effect gets stronger when people are asked to justify their decisions

Reason-based choice People want to be able to justify their choices –May make decisions that are easiest to justify. –Shafir, Simonson, & Tversky Imagine you just finished a particularly difficult final exam, and you are walking home. You will not find out whether you passed the exam until tomorrow afternoon. A travel agent has a sign for an inexpensive trip to Acapulco. The offer expires that afternoon, but you can pay $5.00 to hold a reservation until tomorrow. Do you sign up to take the trip or pay the $5.00 fee? A majority of people given this scenario pay the $5.00. Two other groups are run One group told they passed the exam: Most choose to go One group told they failed the exam: Most choose to go People are paying for information that will not affect their choice...

Reasons vs. Emotions Are reasons good or bad? –Emotions may signal an overall evaluation –May take into account many factors –Reasons may be more unidimensional Wilson et al. –Two types of posters Art reprints and cute posters with cats

Emotion vs. Rationality Is there really an opposition between emotion and rationality? –Can our emotions help us to be more rational decision makers?