Most of us like to pride ourselves on making decision using reason, evidence, and cold hard facts. But research has told us that this really isn’t the case.
Sigmund Freud & Captain Kirk
I sometimes give a talk to groups discussing this phenomenon. I start by discussing how Sigmund Freud postulated that in our head, we have the id, the ego, and the superego—the id is motivated by strong emotion and base desires, the ego is the logical and rational part of our brain, and the superego takes in the perspectives of both to make the choice.
I then go on to use the original Star Trek TV series as a backdrop for the discussion. In our minds, the id is represented by a Dr. “Bones” McCoy character. The ego is represented by Mr. Spock, and the decision rests with Captain Kirk. Presumably, Kirk would listen to both McCoy and Spock and Captain Kirk, in all his awesomeness, would make the choice to save the ship and save the day.
Science tells us that this isn’t really how the situation unfolds. When we deliberate on a decision, we always run the decision through an emotional filter. Only once we have developed an intuition about the right way to proceed, does the decision move through our higher reasoning centers. The purpose of our reasoning centers is to come up with a “rational sounding” case for justifying our initial emotional impression. In effect, the McCoy that resides in our heads controls the puppet strings of Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock persuades our conscious mind with a logic that confirms what we already believe or want to be true. This is the root of such counterproductive thinking as confirmation bias, primacy bias, and motivated reasoning. This occurs independent of our intellects. In fact, the greater our level of intellect, we become more skilled in our rhetorical prowess at persuading ourselves that we are right.
This has important ramifications for self-management, leadership, and influence.
Self-Management
You should always be on guard that you may be falling victim to motivated reasoning. It takes a great deal of effort to remain open to persuasion or to new ideas. Often it takes the counsel of a trusted friend to help you keep your mind receptive to thoughts that you may be skeptical about initially.
Leadership
Our ability to intuit decisions grows as our experience expands. We subconsciously take in so much information, we develop a set of operating rules and guidelines that allow us to make decisions quickly. This is of great benefit, particularly when we are under pressure. Most of the time our intuitions will serve us well. However, this is not always the case. Therefore, it is important to rethink snap decisions you’ve made when you have more time to consider the matter. In addition, we need to try to avoid jumping to snap judgments with limited information, especially if there is no immediate urgency to make the choice. By deferring judgments and deliberately trying to rethink initial impressions, you can often recognize flaws in the decision that are made and set a different course while the damage can be kept to a minimum.
Influence
Finally, whether you are salesperson or someone who wants to enroll another in a new idea, we need to understand the “Star Trek” scene that is actually playing out in people’s head. We know that Dr. McCoy will probably make the choice of whether or not to buy-in in the first few seconds. If we can get McCoy on our side, the audience’s walls will be lowered and they’ll be much more open to persuasion. However, if McCoy gets mad or fearful, we will have a hard time reaching our audience.
I try to plan conversations and pitches in ways that allow me to connect with the preferences of Dr. McCoy. In the last Vlog, I discussed Bob Bogle’s interaction with Sam Walton and how he convinced Walton to name his new “Big Box” story Walmart. Bogle did so by appealing to Sam’s frugality. Bogle knew the concept of trying to Dr. McCoy on his side.
This story touches several aspects of being a professional—self-management, leadership, and influence. I hope you will find ways to apply this to your workplaces and your lives.
