The Role Of Emotions In Decision-Making

My Reflections On Emotion In Decision-Making⁣⁣ - Introduction

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In the last few days, I've been observing human behaviour through the lens of what drives that behaviour. ⁣⁣
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I'll share my conclusions in this post and what actions/techniques are most effective for leveraging our newfound understanding. ⁣⁣

How Poker Is A Microcosm Of Life

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Our exploration begins with observing the flaws in the decision-making of all human poker players (to lesser or greater degrees). ⁣⁣
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Any human in any poker tournament (even the winner) will make multiple mistakes, according to computers. A lot of these mistakes made will be outright blunders.⁣⁣
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When we also factor in that only a tiny percentage of humans are getting enough sleep, exercising strenuously and eating healthily in the right quantities daily (and most such people are still making significant mistakes every day in other areas of their lives), the natural conclusion is that humans are notoriously poor decision-makers (especially when decision fatigue sets in), and that we vastly overestimate how logical our thought process really is.⁣⁣

Specific Case Study

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Case Study 1 is a poker hand from last night, 500/1K blinds. There were 6 limps before it went to me in the Big Blind. I have AJs, and I raiseto 15x (15,000). One of the philosophies of JP Morgan is that people have a good reason for doing something, and a genuine reason for doing it. ⁣⁣
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The good reason is that I learned it from my poker coach as a nice exploit vs. limpers to get the pot heads-up (or take it down outright). The real reason is that I was taking justice into my own hands, and enacting my law with a 15x raise to punish the undeserving limpers in front of me (ignoring the clear tell that UTG was limping a very strong hand - which, incidentally, he flatted to my 15x raise). ⁣⁣
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After another person called 15x with Q8o (if this hasn't destroyed your confidence in humanity to act logically, wait for the next events), another of the limpers jammed for 22,000...with pocket 4s. I wanted to jam all in for 70K, but this wasn't a legal option, so I called, along with the other two callers. ⁣⁣

The Result (Will Shock You)

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After the flop was checked through, I jammed the turn for 49K into a pot of 88K. It was a good play because the other two are meant to fold all one-pair hands (except AK) to such a multi-way jam. Instead, the response was a call with an underpair to 2 cards on the board, and a call with 2nd pair, weak kicker. I wasn't even tilted - rather, I was struggling to grasp an event that contradicted everything I thought I knew about human behaviour. ⁣⁣
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Of course, the irony that I jammed knowing they might call with hands they should 100% fold, is not lost on me. ⁣⁣

The Post-Mortem

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As I tried to distract myself at home, I thought back to all the irrational things I do every day:⁣⁣
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- Sleeping at weird times;⁣⁣
- Eating foods that don't nourish me properly;⁣⁣
- Playing computer games instead of working on things that move my life forward;⁣⁣
- Not selling, even though I know I should⁣⁣
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If intellectual understanding was enough to create action, we'd all be playing life at a 2800+ rating. ⁣⁣

The Extent To Which Emotions Dominate Our Decisions

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In marketing, there is a saying that people 'buy with emotion, and justify with logic'. ⁣⁣
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I now consider this to be true for all actions, not just purchasing decisions. Every 'logical' decision you ever made was primarily the result of emotional stimulus. (Even the feeling of acting logically tends to have a superior/egotistical overtone). ⁣⁣
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At the same time, I consider 'determinism' (that all our decisions are purely the result of emotions/past conditioning) incorrect.

Where Emotions Rest On The Pendulum

We do have control of our actions, but only when we develop the skill of shifting our emotions to support more rational decision-making. (Because problem-solving skills by themselves won't solve problems, if our emotional attachments prevent us from implementing). ⁣⁣
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As often happens, the reality lies somewhere in the middle - to improve a behavioural pattern, we need to work our emotions in our favour. ⁣⁣
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Here are some ways we can do this (from the perspective of a coach): ⁣⁣
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1. Storytelling⁣⁣

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No one ever did something because science told them to. ⁣⁣
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The result of some story (either inside ourselves, or shared with us) led to some positive emotion that is reinforced when we continue the habit.⁣
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Or, on the corollary, we avoid something because of a story with a negative result, that we have now absorbed as part of us. ⁣⁣
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As coaches, the best way we can teach others (and lead them to take the actions in their best interests) is to tell a compelling story, that supports a positive action. ⁣
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2. Ownership/Agency⁣⁣

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People generally don't do things that others tell them to do. ⁣⁣
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Sometimes, people get frustrated with themselves, because they feel they were given good advice, but they didn't act on it. ⁣⁣
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The role of the consultant is to give advice. ⁣⁣
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The role of the coach is to ask better questionswill that lead the students toward better solutions. ⁣⁣
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If you are going to give advice, borrow tip 1 and tell a story around that advice. ⁣⁣
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Otherwise, there's almost no chance that your advice will be followed consistently. ⁣⁣
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3. Pattern Interrupts⁣⁣

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Often, people are so caught up in their current patterns that they are unaware of the prison they have created for themselves.⁣⁣
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Many of the biggest influencers in the self-improvement space swear on occasion, because that expletive is a pattern interrupt - while you're processing that swear word and your response to it, you aren't ruminating on all the ways what you're being told isn't true. ⁣⁣
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Questions are a safer pattern interrupt - why didn't you solve tactical puzzles by theme already, when you already knew 1 month ago to do this? ⁣⁣
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These can also be of a physical nature - from an unusual facial expression, to some physical contact. ⁣⁣
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Our medula oblongata hates surprises, but our pre-frontal cortex relishes surprise - because a life without surprise/variety is boring and predictable. (like a poor story)⁣ ⁣
Conversely, when the pre-frontal cortex shuts down (as in the case of intense emotions), the quality of our decisions decreases drastically, making us no wiser than a wild animal. ⁣
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4. Figure Out What You Want, And Why You Want It⁣⁣

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When we're lazy or unmotivated, it's usually because we don't know what we want. ⁣⁣
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Why am I writing this post, instead of selling coaching programs?⁣⁣
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Because I don't know why I want that result. ⁣⁣
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The first task is not to fool ourselves- we are the easiest people to fool. ⁣⁣
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Being totally honest with ourselves is thus very hard - how often have we said 'we'll do it tomorrow', only to find tomorrow never comes?⁣⁣
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An exercise I've shared several times in my content is the '7 Levels Of Why' exercise - where you take a goal, and continually ask yourself why you want that. ⁣⁣
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The superficial reason won't drive you to action - you need to go very deep into why you want something, before you'll do what it takes to achieve it. ⁣⁣
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Otherwise, you'll give up at the first resistance (much like a student who never solved endgame studies, and suddenly realizes this is way harder than they thought).⁣⁣
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When you are super clear on why, the 'how' for your goal often comes together as a result. ⁣⁣

Conclusion/Summary

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To summarize this long post:⁣⁣
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- Emotions dominate your decisions, work with it;⁣⁣
- People (including yourself) are far, far less logical/rational than you believe;⁣⁣
- Tell better stories to incite desirable actions;⁣⁣
- Take ownership by coming to the final idea/decision yourself;⁣⁣
- Interrupt unsupportive habits/beliefs;⁣⁣
- Go super deep into why you want what you want⁣⁣
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Oh, and the picture? That was leveraging your emotions to get your attention. This is social media, after all.