Fate, or Free Will?
From the Wall Street Journal, “Get Out of Your Own Way: Studies Show the Value of Not Overthinking a Decision” (link from Arts and Letters Daily and The Morning News)
The brain, they have found, appears to make up its mind 10 seconds before we become conscious of a decision….
Such experiments suggest that our best reasons for some choices we make are understood only by our cells. The findings lend credence to researchers who argue that many important decisions may be best made by going with our gut — not by thinking about them too much….
Moreover, the more factors to be considered in a decision, the more likely the unconscious brain handled it all better
These studies throw the concept of “free will” into question. If our body knows ten seconds before our brain does what the decision is, are we really choosing? Not addressed by the article is what happens when the body makes a decision, and the person overthinks and overrides it. (Story of my life, I believe.)
I am reminded of Douglas Adams’ directions for how to fly in the Hitchhiker books: Throw yourself at the ground, then forget that it’s there.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 am
If you have not had the opportunity to read it, may I strongly recommend Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. It deals with the brain’s decision-making processes - and in a way that I believe is amazingly accessible.
I’d suggest that free will isn’t called into question as much as it might appear, based on the results above. To me, it appears to say that our mental balance scales work best behind closed doors; the delicate instruments can’t stand up to our ham-fisted conscious brain. But that’s just mental arithmetic, weighing of pros and cons. In the end, as you suggested above, we can override the “gut feeling” for whatever reasons we choose…
It reminds me of playing basketball. Back when I used to be in shape, I’d find that I could make amazing shots as long as I didn’t try to analyze what I was doing. It’s that mental arithmetic again.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 am
As a neuroscientist in training, I’ll point out that we actually discussed the actual source material for this article at a lab meeting yesterday, and there are quite a few problems with the original study, not just in terms of how they did their analyses but also in terms of how they framed their question. Without going into too much detail, the study does not distinguish between when one decides to do something (e.g., what you will read next) vs when you actually act on that decision (e.g., “ok, now it’s time to read!”). They operate under the assumption that once you make your choice you do it right then and there, when in fact, people often have to delay acting on choices (another example: just because I know what I’m going to eat for lunch today, doesn’t mean I’m going to go and eat it right now at 9:30 in the morning). Also, I’ll point out the obvious that deciding which of two buttons to press (with no consequences associated with either) is hardly going to require individuals to wrestle with the decision-making process, I think. I may allow that we instinctively have an immediate sense of what we’d like to do in many situations, but this study does nothing to address whether those choices are indeed optimal, and as you said, whether they are ever overridden.
Oh, and the researchers were actually only able to determine when participants were going to move 5 seconds in advance of the movement (which is not at all surprising when you look at where they could determine this information from –> motor cortex and pre-motor cortex, areas that are specifically involved in planning and executing actions).
Anyway, didn’t mean to go into a rant, but given that this area is kind of my niche, I get peeved when the popular press gives such a blind take on what we do and do not know about the brain!
July 6th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Steph, thanks for the long comment, and WL, thanks for the recommendation. I think it’s interesting that it seemed to be a reductive article from a flawed study based on what you said, Steph, and yet I still thing it yields interesting things to ponder that points in the direction of the mind-body connection that we’ll probably never quite understand,other than we’re not all one or the other.
And as for your point about deciding to do something, and then getting interrupted, that occurred to me the next day, since it happens to me all the time with the kids. I intend to do something, then I have to pour a glass of milk, or change a diaper, or any number of things, and it becomes very hard to remember what the original decision was.
Both the article, and your comment, Nate, reminded me of Zen and the Art of Archery.