Emotions and the quest for knowledge/ Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge

Review James Lange Theory: Bean Activity

Bellwork Activity  What role does passion play in the quest for knowledge?

Emotions and the quest for knowledge Emotions provide us with the energy to engage in intellectual activity

Emotions regarding the future We also anticipate beyond the present so have emotions now about the future, e.g.: • worry • ambition • determination • drive • passion for a goal (the emotional energy and drive to do things and to create ideas).

Ten-year rule The claim that it takes at least ten years, or 10,000 hours, to achieve greatness in any field of endeavor

Think about it… What are the pros and cons of holding a belief with passion? Give specific examples to illustrate your answer.

Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge

Distorted perception Our perception of things can be distorted by strong emotions As if to justify our moods, our memories obligingly produce evidence to support them. Thus good moods tend to activate happy memories and bad moods sad ones.

Negativity Bias Four of the primary emotions are negative (sadness, fear, anger, and disgust) only one is positive (happiness) Our emotions are bias towards the negative and psychologists tell us that in general ‘bad is stronger than good’ Negativity bias: the bias that leads us to focus more on negative things than positive things

What’s the problem? Negativity bias can distort our perception and cause us to have an unduly pessimistic view of the world

Important exception When it comes to assessing ourselves, we tend to suffer from positive rather than negative illusions It turns out that people with the most accurate view of themselves are the clinically depressed. This view is aptly known as depressive realism.

Twisted reasoning Emotions can cloud our reason When our emotions are aroused, it is all too easy to stop listening to the person we are arguing with and to start trading insults rather than reasons. If you hold your beliefs with too much passion, this can prevent you being open-minded and all too easily lead to a ‘my theory right or wrong’ king of attitude.

Rationalisation When we are in the grip of strong emotions, we tend not to reason in an objective way but to rationalise our pre-existing prejudices. We tend to rationalise when there is a conflict between two or more of our beliefs Strong emotion may result in biased perception/generalisations based on limited experience and/or emotive language. This may lead to the rationalisation of prejudices or invention of bad reasons to justify actions/opinions.

Rationalisation helps us give reasons for our behaviors, even when those reasons might have been designed by others. -The Hidden Psychology Of Why Customers Come Back

Self-confirming belief system 1. biased perception 2. selective memory 3. fallacious reasoning 4. Emotive language: highly charged language which is designed to arouse people’s emotions

Risk assessment We typically judge risks by consulting our feelings rather than statistics. Factors that can trigger the emotion of fear irrespective of whether it is justified: Our evolutionary past The unknown Control Immediacy Salience

Think about it… Since you are much more likely to die in a car on the way to the airport than you are in a plane, would you agree that the fear of flying is an irrational fear? How would you explain it?

Irrational behavior Our emotions can not only distort our perception and reasoning, but also lead us to making poor decisions.

Stoics Stoicism: a philosophy of life which advocates the control and subjugation of one’s emotions To avoid irrational actions, Stoics advocated apathy (without passion) so that decisions could be taken without the interference of emotion. Read short article with entire class: http://www.damninterestin g.com/the-emotional- bankruptcy-of-alexithymia/ Can you imagine a human life without emotions? If so, try to characterize what it might be like. If not, explain why not.

Homework Read article, “The importance of being emotional” BE READY FOR A SHORT DISCUSSION (Socratic seminar) http://share.nanjing- school.com/tok/files/2012/10/The-importance- of-being-emotional-1jk2eqn.pdf