When Emotions Make Better Decisions - Antonio Damasio

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/04/Antonio_Dam...

Antonio Damasio, noted researcher and professor of neuroscience at USC, explains how emotions are integral to decision-making. He discusses his experiences working with people with brain damage who are unable to decide things as simple as where to go to dinner.

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Antonio Damasio, noted researcher and professor of neuroscience at USC, talks with The New York Times' David Brooks about emotions and the science of being human. He describes the difference between emotions and feelings, and explains why emotions are one of humanity's most important survival mechanisms. - Aspen Institute

Antonio Damasio is David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California; he is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how the brain processes memory, language, emotions, and decisions. He has written several best-selling books, including Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain (Harcourt Trade Publishers, 2003) and Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1994). Damasio has received many awards, including the 2005 Asturias Prize in Science and Technology and the 2004 Signoret Prize. Damasio is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

David Brooks became an op-ed columnist for The New York Times in September 2003. He had been an editor at The Wall Street Journal, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, and a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic. Currently a commentator on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, he is also the author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense.

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  News & Politics

[greatbroad]

"When I do good, I feel good, When I do bad, I feel bad, -this is my religion."

Abraham Lincoln

[Courtney Coulson]

And this is why Spock isn't captain.

No emotional decisions.

[Keepsaphe]

I like this! Emotions are necessary! Hooray to passion - life without some zest in life & behind decisions is just a bit dithersome and dreary!

[ushmo10]

The problem with this story is that their inability to make up their mind is not based on emotion because if based on logic and reason they can conclude that the time they are using to make the decision is going to waste so they should choose any.

[greatbroad]

It's about feeling good, not thinking you feel good. It's not supposed to be a brain thing.

[Evi1M4chine]

The Problem is, that “good” and “bad” is different for everyone. And those who think they are the same for everyone, are egomaniacs that want to impose *their* views upon others, or spineless non-individuals (drones) with a imaginary individuality, who do the same, but for the views of their opinion-makers.

In fact, one individual’s “good” often is the other individual’s “bad”, and vice versa.

Ergo, your fake Lincoln quote makes no sense at all, if you turn on your brain.

[socint74]

Excellent observation! I would also say the fundamental factor influencing motivation is prioritising self survival and that emotion (i.e. the arousal of physiological changes related to any perception of threat or promise) is the alerting mechanism which evolved to maximise our capacity to cope or engage in order to maintain equilibrium. Use (by Damasio and others} of the term "emotions" to categorize various thoughts, excitation, stress or mood induced by emotion,is semantic sloppiness.

[jay loomes]

the truth all along is people have just been afraid to speak their feelings because everyone has been telling them their feelings are gay. the person is just in a state of paralyzing fear.

[RocknCorruptrepublic]

I wonder if he's ever looked at this effect in people on antidepressants who have the emotional blunting side effect... Google Scholar is my friend. :D

[cpwm17]

Antonio Damasio gets it. Conscious critters are entirely feelings driven. That is why we are conscious. Without consciousness there are no feelings, and no thought or conscious action would be possible.. Without feelings we enter into a coma.

Every little thing we do is feelings driven. Due to the nature of feelings, our mind automatically chooses what to do or think. Feelings give you the motive to do or think.

Feelings also force the many separate functions of the brain to act as one.