When Emotions Make Better Decisions - Antonio Damasio

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

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.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• neurology
• science
• research
• psychology
• reason
• logic
• gut
• feelings
• emotional
• logical
• empathy
• biology
• fact
• critical
• thinking
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv

[greatbroad]

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

Abraham Lincoln

[0BatGirl0]

And this is why Spock isn't captain.

No emotional decisions.

[happinesson]

but sometimes emotion leads us to a wrong decision even though we know exactly what is right..i agree! I can remember the intensity of emotion during a traumatic event, but cannot recall the fact of the event. Selective amnesia?

[samuelsixvids]

I feel amazed

[andre34343]

Damásio is an idol!!!

Just saying hey from Portugal!!

[DrinxSolutions]

3:04



[hardinmichael1981]

FEAR causes VOTERS to make very STUPID decisions.

[tolas0]

Metaphors, Parables, Mythologies, Stories. Just because something is fictional does not mean it isn't illustrative.

[0BatGirl0]

@micromilesaway No fucking shit Spock is a fictional character. But he's from a TV show, the movies come later.

But that series made alot of good social and philosophical points, this being one of them.

Also, you make no sense, you repeat words and everything is grammatically incorrect.

[0BatGirl0]

@micromilesaway Umm...What?

I said this is why he ISN'T, although there was one episode of TOS where he was the commanding officer of a small crew while they were stranded on a planet.