We’ve taken quite a long journey in this book, from our first discussions of decision-making and the sense–evaluate–act cycle of the thermostat to imagination, morality, and how we are machines with free will. In this book, we’ve explored the science of decision-making, and how humans (and other animals) make decisions, sometimes consciously, sometimes less so. We like to think we are rational creatures, but we often make irrational decisions. This irrationality comes from the separation between the Deliberative “self” and the Pavlovian and habit-driven (Procedural) “other,” but those other decision-making systems, the Pavlovian action-selection and motivation systems, the situation-recognition (memory) components, the habits learned over years, all make up the person you are. To paraphrase Jonathan Haidt’s horse-and-rider analogy,1 you are both the horse and the rider. These are the stories we tell ourselves, the memories that define for us who we are.
Although this is not a self-help book, the theory that the decisions you make arise from multiple, interacting decision-making systems has implications for how we can change our lives if we desire to. The reason that some decisions are made by emotional (Pavlovian) systems, while others are reactive action-chains (Procedural), and others are taken only after extensive consideration of the options (Deliberative) is that each of these systems has advantages and each has disadvantages. The Deliberative system is slow to execute (it takes time to consider those options) but flexible (considering leaving your job doesn’t mean you will). The Procedural system is really good for actions that need to happen the same way every time quickly (like playing a musical instrument). Emotional systems are critical for social interactions.
If you could steer yourself from one system to another at the right time, you could improve your decision-making. For example, engaging the Deliberative system makes it easier to reject impulsive, emotional desires. Contingency Management is a technique where one concentrates on a concrete alternative reward as a means of behavioral modification. This seems to have the effect of engaging Deliberative over emotional or reactive systems.2
As another example, disengaging the Deliberative system and allowing the Procedural system to run is critical for appropriate performance in sports and other behaviors that require repetitive behaviors. My favorite example of this is how Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) distracts the pitcher Ebby LaLoosh’s (Tim Robbins’) Deliberative system by providing him women’s lingerie to wear in the baseball movie Bull Durham.3 Once his (well-trained) Procedural system is given free rein, he discovers that he can pitch strikes reliably. Of course, this only works if the Procedural system has been properly trained. Although we do not generally have conscious control of Procedural behaviors during execution of that behavior, the decision to practice is often a conscious one.4 As every musician knows, the key to playing a piece well is practicing it.A
Similarly, the emotional, Pavlovian systems are critical to making appropriate decisions.5 Courage is not the absence of fear, but the overcoming of fear.6 One should be afraid of a burning building. And, as we saw in Chapter 23, these emotional reactions are critical to appropriately navigating the social milieu we live in. Altruistic punishment (the willingness to sacrifice some of one’s own gain to punish a cheater) occurs because we feel emotional responses to unfairness.7
Not only is it possible to train each of the systems individually, it is possible to learn how to steer oneself between systems, learning when to deliberate and when to allow the Procedural system to run.8 In addition, changes in the support structures (such as the situation-recognition system, Chapter 12) can change one’s decisions.9 For example, realizing that there is “no such thing as one drink” for an alcoholic means that the choices are not between the boring Dr. Jekyll and a suave man-about-town, but rather between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This changes one’s decisions.
Our understanding of how we make decisions has enormous implications for how we understand ourselves, how we interact with others, how we see the world around us, and how we define and treat mental dysfunction. Although a lot is known about the decision-making system and how the brain creates the mind, there is a lot that is still unknown. Most of the concepts that we’ve discussed in this book are still areas of very active research within the scientific community. There are a slew of open questions still unanswered. How do these multiple systems interact? What controls which system drives behavior when the multiple decision systems are in conflict? How does the transition from Deliberative to Procedural (habit) occur? What is self-control, really? How does changing our conceptual narrative change us? How does the Pavlovian motivation system affect the Deliberative and Procedural (habit) action-selection systems? What is the role of attention in evaluation, particularly during deliberation? What does treatment do in addiction or the other psychiatric ailments? What is going wrong in these psychiatric ailments? How do we ascertain the underlying causes? Can we learn to guide each individual patient to the right treatment? There’s a lot of work still to do here. What are we going to find next? I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s going to be a great ride.
A. David Redish
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2010–2013