Thinking and feeling

Excellent article in Fast Company Magazine - "In Defense of Feelings". It talks about an experiment by Chen-Bo Zhong in Toronto that put subjects in interaction with anonymous partners where they had two options: treat them fairly or lie to them. They were 'coached' to either a) think rationally or b) go with their gut. When advised to think rationally the subjects lied 69% of the time. When advised to base their decisions on gut feelings they only lied 27% of the time.

It is interesting that, even though the study shows we'd be treated better by people who trust their feelings we are leery of them. When given a choice, 75% chose the rational partner.

Reminds me of the account in Genesis 3 of the first temptation. The serpent knew to appeal to the brain ('you will know good and evil and be like God') and the 'gut' sounds a lot like our God-given conscience written on our hearts.

The article goes on to make application to the financial meltdown we just experienced, especially with mortgages that should never have been given. When the 'deliberative processes' took over, many used odd logic to justify what they were doing. They used historical data that made no sense. The article uses parallel logic: "I've never gained more than 2 pounds in a year, so let's go for all the Ben and Jerry's I can get my hands on".

And also an interesting story from Alcoa. When Paul O'Neill became CEO in 1987 he said: "No more deaths due to accidents". They had a pretty decent safety record as a company but O'Neill's gut said no deaths were acceptable and that is our ruler. He walled off the same 'deliberative processes' the experiment focused on and told his team: "If anyone ever calculates how much money we're saving by being safe, they're fired".
They went on to become one of the safest companies in the world even with the dangers inherent in the aluminum industry.

The brain and the emotions/feelings/our gut - an interesting combination.