[lit-ideas] Re: When you're hot you're hot, when you're not ...

  • From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:07:54 -0400

Robert: I had some thoughts, and I was about to send them, but then I realized I would just be expressing my emotions (as were those researchers when they said that emotions 'decide' everything).
The various researchers cited in the book found that *decision-making* (not thinking per se) is the result of emotion and reason fused. Examples given include a football quarterback's ability to "feel" the opening for his pass milliseconds before it materializes on the field; an HMS radar scanner's ability to tell one of Saddam's incoming missiles from returning jets bearing almost exactly the same signature; a jet pilot's decision to climb or dive out of a stall. In each case, the people involved could not account for the decisions in a rational way, yet were afterward shown to be spot on. (This seemed relevant to musical performance so I mentioned it.)
However, knowing when not to trust emotions is also part of decision-making. For example, the phenomena of "loss aversion" (won $25,000, now only have $10,000 left, but willing to stake it all in a long-shot for $200,000) keeps casinos in business. The person who wisely folds with $10,000 in winnings exemplifies the fusion of emotion and reason.
The amount of time one has to make a decision seems to be the issue. 
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