Intentions and the Illusion of Free Will
Who’s in control of the choices that you make? Is it you? Science says not a chance! What do you really control anyway, the volume on your radio, the temperature of your car. What else?
The brain has specific cortical circuits that when triggered are associated with sensations that arise in the course of wanting to initiate and then carry out a voluntary action. Once these circuits are connected and their molecular and synaptic signatures identified, they constitute the neuronal correlates of consciousness for intention and action.
It works both ways. Your thinking impacts your physiology and your physiology impacts your thinking and both orient what actions you take. The question still remains however, are you in control of how you think, feel and act?
Benjamin Libet, 1980s psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, stated;
“A few hundred milliseconds before a person thought he or she decided to press a button, brain areas related to movement were already active. The unconscious brain calls the shots, making free will an illusory afterthought!”
The research indicates that human behavior is wired in for survival, all of it! Consider the following; What do you see?
(Black spots up close, image of a dog when you pull away. Send an email and I’ll send this image to you.)
The reality of the above observation is black patches. However, the human brain is genetically coded to recognize a pattern. This pattern is a dog. This dates back to evolutionary days of survival of the fittest. It favored survival to be able to instantly recognize danger and to initiate an avoidance response long before you were conscious of the threat.
Our brain was selected for pattern recognition and action long before conscious thought occurred. This also required less brain energy. Human evolution has always favored conservation of energy. Here are some examples of both conservation of energy and pattern recognition.
What is 12 divided by ½? Most of the population will conserve energy, recognize a pattern and answer 6. That is incorrect. It is 24.
Here’s another example.
Frank is looking at Mary but Mary is looking at Bill. Frank is married Bill is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Can not be determined.
Most of the population, 80%, answers c) Can not be determined. That is not correct. The answer is a) Yes. This is called a cognitive miser. The individual recognizes a pattern and jumps to a conclusion. It is low in computational power but it is fast. It doesn’t interfere with other ongoing cognitive functions. It’s easy, conserves energy and initiates survival action. What you gain in speed you lose in computational accuracy. Humans are cognitive misers because our basic tendency is to default to the processing mechanisms that require less computational effort even if they are less accurate. We need to act first and figure it out later because 5 million years ago that meant survival.
The fact that the problem does not reveal whether Mary is married or not suggest to people that they don’t have enough information and they make the easiest inference c) without thinking through the possibilities.
What controlled this choice? It was a genetically programmed, pattern recognition that saved time and created action, for survival!
Every choice that we make is govern by the essential law of human performance. We are coded to avoid the highest level of perceived pain. We are avoidance machines. We recognize patterns and react then analyze. We are preprogrammed genetic machines!
Although we can not change our genetic coding and neurological wired patterns of predisposed behavior, we can purposefully direct it with behavioral contracting.
Make a commitment and then place a painful consequence for non performance. Make a penalty that will be enforced if you don’t accomplish the commitment. You are already wired to avoid pain, to see patterns of opportunity for the avoidance of your highest level of perceived pain. You will “see” opportunities to avoid the penalty that would never be available to you had you not participated with a behavioral contract.
Make a commitment, put a consequence for non performance on the task, have someone else hold you accountable and watch how creatively you can avoid the pain and do the activity!
High Performance Training, Inc.
Bob Davies, M.Ed. Psychology, B.S. Health, MCC Master Certified Coach
20992 Ashley Lane, Lake Forest, CA 92630-5865
949-830-9192 fax 949-830-9492 Email: Info@bobdavies.com
Website: http://www.Bobdavies.com On-Line coaching http://www.bobdaviescoaching.com
Bob Davies, named in the top 100 greatest minds of personal development world-wide by Excellence Magazine.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:24 am
Please send me the example of the dog picture. Thank you!