Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Agenda for February 29 Administrative Items/Announcements Presentation on Thursday: Elissa, Laine, Ada As semester progresses, presenters increasingly responsible for article details Paper topics due 2 weeks from today Revision on sign-ups for RPP Funded research opportunities available Agenda for today Review exams Overview of Emotion and Decision Making

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Emotions & Decision Making Historic Good/Bad Controversies Long intellectual history of renouncing emotional influences on DM Ancient Greeks, Descartes, Spinoza, etc. Representative quote: “ A man who is submissive to his emotions does not have power over himself, but is in the hands of fortune to such an extent that he is often constrained, although he may see what is better for him, to follow what is worse.” – Spinoza,

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Historic Good/Bad Controversies A significant shift in 1800’s: Economics allows for some emotional inputs to DM Bentham (1789) -- who coined the term “utility” --viewed utility as the net sum of positive and negative emotions. By 1900, emotion was removed from “utility” “Utility” came to mean, not maximizing one’s happiness, but simply satisfying one’s preferences. Emotional influences not only renounced but also rejected as a conceivable influence.

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Historic Good/Bad Controversies 1930’s-1960’s: Emotions also rejected in Psychology Period of denying any influence of emotions on decisions or behavior. Dominance of Behaviorism in Psychology Representative quote: Emotions are “…excellent examples of the fictional causes to which we commonly attribute behavior.” – Skinner, 1953

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Historic Good/Bad Controversies : The Dark Ages of Emotion Increasingly sophisticated decision theories develop in psychology and economics, each completely overlooking emotion. Consequentialist and cognitive models dominate Assume that people rationally select options that maximize expected utility Do not link utility to emotion EU = P x V

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Historic Good/Bad Controversies : Emotion Renaissance? New theories highlight the (a) essential functions of emotion and (b) detriments of ignoring emotion. Representative quote: “Our deepest feelings, our passions and longings, are essential guides, and … our species owes much of its existence to their power in human affairs.” Goleman (1995)

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 Historic Good/Bad Controversies : Emotion Renaissance, cont. Benefits of emotion Facilitates prioritization of processing resources Provides useful info. About the desirability of different courses of action. Damasio’s (1994) “somatic marker” hypothesis Individuals with minimal cognitive, but major emotional deficits, make poor decisions. Example.

Reason, Passion, & Social CognitionWeek 7, Part 1 New Approaches to Emotion & Decision Making Three types of emotional inputs to decision making 1. Expected Emotions 2. Anticipatory (Integral) Emotions 3. Incidental Emotions