Author: Ray Williams
Most of us have been taught that ethical thinking, decisions and behavior is a product of logic and reason, and void of emotions and feelings. Ethics has been viewed more like Spock and less like Captain Kirk.
But there is a growing consensus that moral judgments are based largely on intuition —‘gut feelings’ about what is right or wrong in particular cases. Sometimes these intuitions cause conflict, both within and between individuals. And emotions play a critical and more accurate role.
Ever since the time of the ancient Greeks, we've assumed that humans are rational creatures. When we make a decision, we are supposed to consciously analyze the alternatives and carefully weigh the pros and cons. This simple idea underlies the philosophies of Plato and Descartes; it forms the foundation of modern economics; it drove decades of research in cognitive science. Over time, rationality came to define us. It was, simply put, what made us human.
According to Dr. Michael Gershon, author of The Second Brain: The Scientific Basis for Gut Instinct, there's only one problem with this assumption: it's wrong. It's not how the brain works. For the first time in human history, we can look inside our brain and see how we think. It turns out that we weren't engineered to be rational or logical or even particularly deliberate. Instead, our mind holds a messy network of different areas, many of which are involved with the production of emotion.
Dr. Gershon has devoted his career to understanding the human bowel (the stomach, esophagus, small intestine, and colon). His thirty years of research have led to an extraordinary rediscovery: nerve cells in the gut that act as a brain. This "second brain" can control our gut all by itself. Our two brains -- the one in our head and the one in our bowel -- must cooperate. If they do not, then there is chaos in the gut and misery in the head -- everything from "butterflies" to cramps, from diarrhea to constipation. Dr. Gershon's work has led to radical new understandings about a wide range of gastrointestinal problems including gastroenteritis, nervous stomach, and irritable bowel syndrome. "The Second Brain" represents a quantum leap in medical knowledge and is already benefiting patients whose symptoms were previously dismissed as neurotic or "it's all in your head."
Gut reactions, it turns out, may have a higher rate of accuracy in their ability to predict outcome then the most carefully laid, "scientific" plans. In his book Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious. Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, defines "gut reactions" as a judgment that is fast and comes quickly into a person's consciousness. The person doesn't know why they have this feeling yet it's strong enough to make them act on it. "What a gut instinct is not is a calculation. You do not fully know where it comes from." According to Gigerenzer a gut reaction can be so accurate because gut reactions make great use of the amazing capacities of the brain that nature has spent eons evolving in order to help us survive. And emotions play a critical role.
Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide, argues that we weren't engineered to be rational or logical or even particularly deliberate. Instead, our mind holds a messy network of different areas, many of which are involved with the production of emotion. Whenever we make a decision, the brain is awash in feeling, driven by its inexplicable passions. Even when we try to be reasonable and restrained, these emotional impulses secretly influence our judgment.
Wouldn't it be shock if we learned that unethical behavior is aided rather than prevented by reason?
In a series of experiments by Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto, he put test subjects into interactions with an anonymous partner where they had two options: To treat their partners fairly or lie to them. If they decided to lie, they would gain at the expense of their partners. Before making the decision to cheat or be fair, half the test group were encouraged to think rationally about the situation and to ignore their emotions. Given this advice, the majority (60%) analyzed the situation and concluded they should cheat their partners. The other half of the test group were advised to make their decision based on "gut feelings." Only 27% of them lied and cheated their partners.
Zhong reported another interesting phenomena in his experiment. When his subjects were given a choice to interact with a rational decision-making partner, vs. an emotional gut-trusting partner, 75% chose the rational partner. Zhong concluded that "deliberative processes can license questionable behaviors by focusing on tangible monetary outcomes and reducing emotional influence."
Ethical behavior may have played a significant role in the recent Wall Street meltdown. Mike Francis, who worked at Morgan Stanley before the economic collapse, bought up numerous questionable mortgages, including the non-income, no asset variety, meaning the bank could not verify the customer's income or assets. Customer answers wouldn't be checked, and a significant number of customers provided fictitious income claims. As reported in American Life, Francis said, "the banks were setting you up to lie...we did it because everyone was doing it."
So what was the lesson for many Wall Street workers: If you're getting rich, and following the rules, even though your gut or heart tells you it may not be ethical, your mind can still provide you a rationalization. So looking back on the sub-prime mortgage debacle, the only accurate information was not rational or logical, it was people's gut feeling.
It's a lesson for all of us that logic and rationalilty alone don't led to the best or ethical decisions. When you're in an ethically loaded situation, and your gut talks to you, listen!
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ethics-articles/your-gut-may-be-more-ethical-than-your-brain-1038728.html
About the Author
Ray Williams is Co-Founder of Success IQ University and President of Ray Williams Associates, companies based in Phoenix and Vancouver, providing leadership development, personal growth and executive coaching services and products.