The Neuro-Protective Lifestyle

How To Recession Proof Your Brain: The Emotional Side Of Money

Posted on 16. Nov, 2008 by Kerry Friesen, M.D. in Neuromarketing Niche'ities, The End of Psychology

“I have always been fascinated by the law of reversed effort.

Sometimes I call it the “backwards law.”

When you try to stay on the surface of the water you sink;
but when you try to sink you float.

When you hold your breath you lose it—”

Alan Watts—
The Wisdom Of Insecurity

Inside The Head Of An Iconoclastic Psychoneurocosmetologist

HOW TO MAKE A DECISION: SERVING SIZE 1—1,000

In a cranial-sized cake pan, combine one ounce of amygdala with 1/2 cup of limbic system, funnel through the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and bake at 37 degrees for a millisecond or so. Add a pinch of social intelligence, a hint of basal ganglia and voila’—one decent decision!

Or is it?

TO FEEL OR NOT TO FEEL:
TWO BIOLOGY OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

No neuroscientist will deny that emotion is an inevitable aspect of real-life decision making. The question has always been whether an individual’s emotional response when faced with uncertainty will facilitate or decimate the process.

Now, contrary to the popular misconception that “cooler heads prevail”, recent studies seem to suggest a more emotionally intense intuitive model for financial decision making may be best.

This is the brave new world of neuroeconomics.

An eclectic blend of neuroscience, economics and experimental psychology, where being emotional is NOT the same as irrational.

THE CENTER FOR NEUROPOLICY

At the Center For Neuropolicy at Emory University, Dr. Greg Berns M.D., distinguished professor of neuroeconomics and psychiatry and author of the recently released, Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently (Harvard Business School Press, 2008), uses a combination of computational and functional neuroimaging techniques to explore the neural basis for decision making and human interaction.

If that makes you nervous, remember while we sleep, experimental economists are busy rewriting the financial framework we have all been programmed to live within. Given the current economic crisis, can you really blame them?

Not to worry, here are 4 points to help recession proof your brain:

1. Go with your gut
Your emotional response to a cost-benefit analysis or any financial decision will constitute a “somatic marker“, a visceral measure of “body sensations” as it were to help guide you the next time you are faced with a similar decision.

2. Emotions are information too
Decision making involves assessing all types of information cognitive and otherwise.
Embracing a particular emotion rather than resisting it, places it squarely in the realm of information and assists in the discriminating process.

3. Few decisions are truly individual
Emotional and social intelligence shape the social context that decisions are made within.
Corporate decision making is a good example. The complexity of decision making in the corporate environment is mind-boggling—the best approach is to accept the fact that you are indeed being influenced by outside forces.

4. Failure is not to be feared
Remember our sense of “ownership” is really nothing more than a self-perpetuating delusion. Change is an inevitability—financial status included. Sometimes, “Losing Everything Can Finally Mean Beginning”.

Tags: Greg Berns, iconoclast, neural marketing, neuroeconomics, neuroethics, neurosociety