Humans are born to decide

Humans are born to decide:

A general overview in ten steps

from the perspective of a neuroscientist

Ernst Pöppel

Unity of consciousness

It may come as a surprise, but with respect to the topic decisions I go back to the origin of life. The development of life emerged jointly with the invention of the ability to make “decisions”. Already unicellular organisms have to move into a specific direction, to find a place with better living conditions. To do so, a “decision” on the basis of available information is necessary, to decide between better and worse. Decisions and life are fundamentally linked.

The precondition of this close tie between decision and life is “movement” in its original sense. Who is moving has to decide – in a practical sense to move from one place to another, in a metaphorical sense to change conditions. Decisions presuppose that the whole organism is involved. The unity of an organism is the basis of a decision. The movement of an organism can only go in one direction. All information processing serves the purpose to allow the organism to orient in one direction.

With respect to so-called „higher“ living beings (like perhaps humans), this simple fact requires the unity of consciousness as a necessity. At any moment, the brain has to filter specific information out of the immense amount of information it has to deal with. A consequence of the necessary unity of consciousness is that “multitasking” in a strict sense (to execute several tasks simultaneously on the conscious level) is not possible. The subjective present (lasting approximately three seconds) allows only one content of consciousness. Choosing a longer time interval, for example half an hour, we are of course able to cope with different tasks. However, this “asynchronous multitasking” needs a special logistics of the brain to store information in the working memory and to recall it again.

Two hemispheres, a duality of brain functions and two states of consciousness

The left and the right hemispheres of our brain are associated with different functions. The left hemisphere is considered to be related to most language functions. Analytical functions and inferences about what is going on in the world are associated with the left. The right hemisphere is associated more with spatial cognition and also emotional evaluation. In other words, the left hemisphere is more responsible for detailed analytic information processing, the right hemisphere more for holistic processing. However, both hemispheres are connected which is necessary to allow for the unity of consciousness. The conceptual competence of the left hemisphere is not separated from the pictorial competence of the right hemisphere. Concept and image are complementary and represent different aspects of our knowledge about events and facts.

A duality of functions is also given concerning the repertoire of the mind. There is always “something” in our mind, i.e., we see, feel, believe or want something. But this content of consciousness, the “what”, can only be made available when logistical functions are operative. Without “how” functions no content could be made available. At first we have to think about the “power supply” of the brain, i.e. the activation machinery that fluctuates throughout the day and force us to sleep regularly. The second logistical function is the temporal organization of functions, which are represented in spatiotemporal patterns, and which are glued together with a temporal machinery. And the third logistical function is attention, the ability to be focused on something. “What” and “how” functions are necessary to be able to perceive, to think, to decide, to act, to be conscious.

And there is another aspect of duality that has great importance: Approximately at the age of four, humans develop the ability to be aware of being conscious of oneself; and in discovering this, it is also evident for the child that other human beings also have consciousness; this research is referred to as having a “theory of mind”. This implies the possibility to understand the situation of another human being, to take a position external to oneself. Therefore, in principle, we have two states of consciousness: an internal self-related perspective and an external perspective. These two perspectives of an internal and external point of view are quite important with respect to decisions: It has been shown that moral and economic judgments elicit very different brain patterns when judgments are made from the “first person perspective” compared to the “third person perspective”; the alternatives are: “I should (not) do it” – “One should (not) do it.”

The dual organization of the brain can instruct us in decision-making. Detailed analytic information processing together with the view for the whole, analysis and synthesis are necessary to reach decisions, which promote future creative processes. It is not sufficient to have only an analytic view towards problem-solving, but at the same time it is also not sufficient to have only a holistic perspective. The complementarity of paying attention to details and to the whole provides stability.

The ability to take an external perspective allows thinking about facts and circumstances in an abstract way. The internal perspective is on the other hand the basis of sensitivity for others, the source of empathy. With respect to institutions like the ULP the implications should be to look for the right balance in strategic behavior. Hierarchical relations between decision-making levels are necessary to be capable of acting operatively. Heterarchy is necessary to involve all members in knowledge generation. Hierarchy and heterarchy have to be conceptually separated, however, both have to be actualized to promote creativity. The challenge in education is is to develop sensitivity for the frame of reference and to communicate and even teach the two perspectives: In which situation does hierarchy, in which does heterarchy apply? It has to be understood by everybody that responsibility requires a hierarchical structure, whereas knowledge creation occurs within a non-hierarchical environment.

Three types of nerve cells in the brain, and three types of knowledge

All nervous systems consist in principle of three types of nerve cells only: receptors or sensory cells receiving information from outside and informing us about the world; motor cells representing the output and making actions possible; and the great intermediate net (more than 100 billion cells), or what we usually refer to as “the brain”.

The receptors represent the specific adaptation of an organism to its environment. The human light receptors, for example, can only process a very narrow band of electromagnetic waves. Outside this band, we are blind to the rest of the world, which actually implies that we are “blind” to most of the things that happen around us. The motor cells regulate the motion apparatus, the inner organs and ensure the stability of the organism. And they also control the emotional expression with our face muscles.

Concerning the intermediate net, every nerve cell distributes its activity to approximately 10,000 other cells; and it also receives and integrates information from approximately 10,000 other cells. Because of this principle of divergence and convergence of nerve cells, in other words because of the spatially distributed activities of parallel working elements within this neuronal net, all psychological domains represented in the brain are highly interconnected: There is no percept without memory, without emotional evaluation and the planning of an action.

Such a “trinity” is also a characteristic of human knowledge. When we refer to “knowledge” we usually concentrate only on the consciously available or explicit knowledge. However, we have to distinguish three types of knowledge: in addition to explicit knowledge we are characterized by implicit or intuitive knowledge and, third, also by pictorial knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be represented in words or signs. Implicit knowledge is referred to also as “tacit” knowledge, and is for instance, dominant in our ritual or automatized behavior. Pictorial knowledge can be triangulated into visual perception (because “seeing is knowing”), topological or geometrical knowledge represented, for example, in diagrams or histograms, and, third, into episodic knowledge. Episodic knowledge is built up of the pictures of unique experiences from our past, which are imprinted in our memory. With episodic memory, we are able to time travel to our past and to contact not only these episodes, but also to contact our “self”. Many of these pictures are re-coded and newly staged in the way that we ourselves are part of the image; we become our own “Doppelgänger”. In this way, pictorial knowledge represents and is necessary for our personal identity; we know who we are, because we can double ourselves.

Four rules of thinking and four sources of error  

The strong belief in pure rationality goes back to the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, and is still dominant in the Western culture. Descartes formulated four rules of thinking (Discours de la Méthode, 1637). The first rule demands to formulate a problem clearly and distinctly, without hastiness and prejudice. The second rule requires dividing a problem into its parts. Third, to solve a problem, one should start with the simple and proceed to the complex. The fourth rule is the most difficult one: All the ideas and facts to treat a problem have to be taken care of, and a problem has to be considered in its entirety. These rules are of course quite relevant on an operational level like writing a budget. But can they be generalized? Are we capable to think without prejudices, to disentangle a problem before we know what the problem is, to consider all details? The answer is an emphatic “NO”, and this answer has already been given at approximately the same time by the English politician and philosopher Francis Bacon (Novum Organon, 1620) who discussed four errors of thinking.

The first error is to overrate our analytic abilities. Our think tools are imprinted and constrained by natural evolution. Imprinting by evolution is also the source of the second error; we usually are not aware of our personal and cultural imprinting, and we often enjoy our prejudices. The third error in thinking is related to the fact that we use language. Thinking can never be expressed perfectly in language; explicit communication with others represents only a subset of our thinking processes. And the fourth error is conditioned by the theories or expectations we adhere to on an implicit or explicit level. Theories and indeed prejudices are necessary to navigate effortlessly through our social and physical surroundings; they express the economical principle of our brain, i.e., to work efficiently and effortlessly. However, this conditioning usually implies not being aware of our hidden theories, which model our thinking.

The high interconnectivity of all brain cells ensures that there are for example no decisions, which are not neuronally embedded into processes of perception, emotional evaluation, memories of the past and intended actions. In a goal-directed decision all these processes are involved. Not being aware of the four errors of thinking, i.e. overrating our analytic abilities, neglecting the constraints of imprinting, counting too much on explicit communication and forgetting that we often rely on implicit theories and prejudices, is a serious obstacle for creativity and innovation.

Five universal traits of personality and five mental operations for making decisions  

Every human being can be described with reference to only five different traits, the “big five”, and they represent anthropological universals being independent of cultural background. The five personality domains are: extraversion versus introversion, emotional stability versus instability, placidity versus aggression, openness versus reticence, diligence versus laziness. Despite this small number of traits, individuality and personal identity is not an illusion; every person is unique, representing a special position in a five-dimensional space (mathematically speaking). And the number five can also be identified when we make decisions, as they are based on five mental operations. First, facts and situations have to be determined, i.e. have to be classified. Second, these classifications have to be compared, and comparison can take place with respect to quality or quantity. Third, results of a comparison allow choices between alternatives, this choice being, fourth, the basis of a decision. The fifth step is then an action following the preceding decision. The accomplished action opens the next cycle to create new mental categories.

Six basic emotions

In all our decisions, emotions play implicitly or explicitly an important role. Emotions seem to be manifold; can they be classified in psychology? Surprisingly, this can be done in examining the emotional expressions in different cultures. Independent of the cultural frame, there exist only six basic emotions: fear, sadness, anger, disgust, joy and surprise. How is it possible that these emotions are understood and experienced interculturally? The reason is again our genetically imprinted programs; they encompass these emotions as basic configuration. This enables us to experience certain reliability in intercultural communication, even without understanding the foreign language.

Why do we have emotions at all? Emotions are evaluation authorities of our brain to classify the relevance of experiences and events. Without reference to our own emotions, it is also not possible to take appropriate decisions. Another important feature of emotions is that, compared to the other contents of our consciousness (perception, memories and actions), only emotions show longer time constants – up to hours and even longer if we think about sadness or happiness.

Sometimes patients suffer injuries in frontal areas of the brain. It has been shown that in these cases emotional evaluations are decoupled from other functions. Such patients show no difference with respect to intelligence, but they are no longer capable for meaningful decisions with long-term consequences. Without the emotional framing we are captured in a present without a future perspective. Actually, the different muscles in our face have been selected during evolution to express our emotions, to inform other human beings about our specific internal feelings. In this way, the evolutionary selection processes determine the social sphere. As a consequence to restrict communication with others using email contacts only, neglects our human heritage. Another important feature of our emotional apparatus is that decision processes are possible only if they are emotionally embedded. The loss of emotionality often causes irrational decisions. Decisions need both: deliberate rationality and immediate emotionality.

Seven competences in speech and communication

To communicate adequately, seven linguistic competences are necessary. First, to be able to speak, we have to produce speech sounds, i.e. we own “phonetic” competence. The reservoir of phonemes in the may thousand languages is extremely similar; there exist approximately only 100 phonemes in all languages, which are genetically given. In learning our mother tongue, only a subset of these genetically given phonemes is confirmed, the other ones are turned off. Thus, the English, Chinese, Burmese or German repertoires of speech sounds are different which shows up in the accents in speaking as grown-ups when we talk in a foreign language. In learning the words of a language, we build up “lexical” competence. Talking to each other, we normally use not only single words but whole sentences. To be able to do this, we need to know grammatical rules; this is our third “syntactic”competence.

Using words and correct grammar is necessary but not sufficient to transport meaning. Meaningful speech needs “semantic” competence. After certain brain injuries patients may lose semantic competence; their language may sound normal, but they don’t say anything. And in communicating with language, we deploy specific intonations; with this “prosodic” competence we communicate our emotional states.

Talking also has to be adapted to the context at a given moment, and it has to match the specific situation. Adequate speech, i.e. understanding the frame of reference represents our “pragmatic” competence. The list of linguistic competences is completed by number seven, the “social” competence. In different cultures, in different social circumstances different linguistic habits are applied, which have to be taken into account to communicate successfully. A successful decision-maker has to master all seven linguistic competences, or has to be at least aware of them.

Eight phases of life, and eight corners

Human life can be divided into eight phases. The first phase begins after conception and ends with entering the world. This prenatal phase is already essential for how we will master life until its end. The second phase is the first years up to approximately three or four years when in particular trust in the world may be established. A third phase follows: after we discover our own thinking and learn that other people also have a mind (“theory of mind”), and this phase is characterized by learning in kindergarten or primary school.

The fourth phase is puberty as a phase of transition. It follows phase five when we learn and prepare ourselves for a professional life. Phase six is the longest phase, on average half of life expectancy, when we work and provide for ourselves and the social system financial security, for the young and the older generations. In the seventh phase after retirement we may start something new in the sense of “re-tiring”, i.e. putting on new tires, or enjoying what we have accomplished previously. The phase eight is that of old age at the end of life, which may be in wisdom.

The number eight can also be used to illustrate another important result of modern neuroscience. Let us imagine a cube, which is transparent (a so-called “Necker cube”). The cube has eight corners, and it can be seen in two perspectives, either the front side ahead or the backside up front. This cube is a symbol for the dynamics of our perception. Once we are aware of the two perspectives, we are not able to avoid a change in perspective. Approximately every three seconds, one perspective transforms into the other one.

This openness for change is a characteristic of our entire cognitive apparatus. We keep something in mind for several seconds (maintaining the identity of content of consciousness). Then, an inner decision process occurs, the brain wonders “Is there something new in the world?” If the new something is another perspective, this perspective enters consciousness. This change in consciousness points to “complementary” as an essential feature of our neuronal apparatus. Identity and change, stationarity and dynamics are complementary processes.

Nine stumbling blocks in navigating through the world

In thinking, decision-making and acting, we can identify at least nine stumbling blocks or traps in reaching the the right decision and the appropriate action.

First, our evolutionary heritage results in a “disease” which I would like to call “monocausalitis”. If we want to understand something, we usually are searching for only one underlying cause; and usually we find only one reason. However, because the world is mostly not as simple as we would like to have it, adequate comprehension of most situations and appropriate decisions have to acknowledge multicausality.

The second stumbling block is due to the way we display complex issues, for example, in using “boxological” drawings. Every picture is an abstraction, and abstraction necessarily neglects information. Schematic pictures represent specific states of a problem or situation; they are timeless pictures neglecting dynamics.

Third: The fact that we talk (or write) to each other opens up the language trap. Not everything what we think can be represented in language appropriately. This is particularly experienced in intercultural communication, which is typically characterized by misunderstandings.

The fourth trap is our dependency on the assessment of others. For example, the expected media coverage with respect to a decision and its consequences may influence the decision. The feedback through other persons or the media generates a frame of dependency. We may not be able to avoid this; however, we should be able to know that such a frame exists.

Stumbling block number five is blindness to chance events. Not all strategies, decisions and actions can be calculated rationally in advance. Sometimes serendipity plays a decisive role in finding creative new solutions.

The sixth trap is short-term thinking. To follow short-term plans and goals prevents long-term strategies. Tunnel vision and short-term actions may destroy future possibilities. Long-term strategy has to be robust with respect to short-term fluctuating scenarios.

Closely connected is trap seven, the myth of speed in thinking or acting. We often mistakenly mix up speed and high competence. Unfortunately, with this respect psychological research has made unfortunate contributions in judging intelligence by means of the speed of problem-solving. Wanting to be fast (and first) often prevents depth in thinking.

A widely unknown source of errors is that we miss a “statistical sense”. As the result of our evolutionary heritage and the imprinting of our brain, we are inclined to create simple categories and to treat problems in an effortless way. However, our lack of a statistical sense often leads to false interpretations of statistics, for example, in judging risks.

Stumble block number nine is the person we are – with all our human weaknesses. One of our worst enemies is laziness, another one is stupidity. Stupidity can be evil if one is not willing to take note of available knowledge. Self-staging and having no respect for others is another personal trap. Facing all these human weaknesses with self-transparency is necessary to be able to step out. And one should add the erotic trap, i.e. that decisions are sometimes made to attract somebody.

We always should be aware of the listed nine stumbling blocks in making good decisions. “Monocausalitis” prevents adequate problem-solving; “boxology” neglects information and temporal processes; the language trap narrows our communicative possibilities; dependency on the assessment of others may influence decisions in an inadequate way; blindness for serendipity prevents new creative ideas; short-term thinking and the myth of speed in thinking or acting may destroy future possibilities; our lack of a statistical sense may result in errors in judging risks; and our human nature asks for self-transparency to avoid conflicts.

The E-pyramid

The E-pyramid with twn elements represents a summary of the basic conditions to support responsible and successful decisions. The E-pyramid consists of four hierarchically ordered levels. At the lowest basic level, the most fundamental conditions are displayed. Our evolutionary heritage, the impact of an evolutionary process of millions of years, manifests itself in the imprinted constraints of our mental apparatus. Ethical principles, for example responsibility with respect to others, represent also an evolutionary feature. And as evolutionary products, we also need to show environmental responsibility. Economic understanding is necessary to utilize resources on the personal, institutional and global level and to guarantee long-term stability.

The second operational level characterizes the principles underlying our mental operations. To create easy access to new information with our sense organs is again an evolutionary heritage spanning millions of years. Interfaces must be designed in such ways that easy access to information and straightforward transformation into knowledge can be achieved.

Effortless processing of information characterizes the processing of stored and assessed information. In the evolutionary process, all living beings are programmed to act efficiently. In the biological context, acting is the execution of a goal-oriented movement. In reaching the goal, needs of the organism are satisfied and as a result a dynamical equilibrium is achieved.

The third level outlines individual and social goals. To develop something new is a challenge for every individual, however, no simple formula can be given to meet emergent creativity. However, curiosity, incorporation of knowledge from other fields, or openness will generate a social frame if emotional embedding is given.

At the top of the pyramid we find three strategic goals in a culture of decisions. Since the beginning of life, reaching homeostatic balance is a driving force. This equilibrium is never stable; it is always dynamic. Paradoxically, such an implemented dynamics guarantees long-term stability. With energy excellence can be reached.

A warning: Every decision is a "wrong" decision, as potentially better decisions are excluded. But no decision is even worse.