Emotion and decisions

Our decisions are powerfully influenced by our emotions. According to the results of cognitive science research, we are far less rational than we are willing to accept.

Our emotions provide our brain with data taken from the environment, in other words, our emotions are influenced by the conditions of the environment, and when those conditions are extreme - from the negative or positive point of view - the influence they exert on our emotions can get out of control.

For example, when the environment is hostile, often our attention is fixed on the negative aspects of the reality and negative emotions gain ground, fear, frustration, impotence, anger, disappointment and, worst of all, despair.

The negative feelings we experience in adverse or complicated situations, when prolonged, end up deteriorating our health. That is why it is very important to face this negative attitude, for example, by asking ourselves what can we take advantage of what happens, what things, people or situations give us pleasure or joy, or what we have learned. Ask ourselves such questions prevents our attention from being solely and excessively negative, so that they contribute to preserving our emotional and physical health, and allow us to be attentive to uncover new possibilities.

Attention is a scarce resource, as is our ability to process information, so that when we focus on the negative, we run the risk of not seeing other things, such as opportunities, positive feelings, good things that happen to us in the midst of that hostility.

It is not about denying reality, or thinking that we should banish negative emotions - that would be counterproductive, because negative emotions have a function, warn us of danger or drive us to prepare ourselves to get well out of a situation -, it is about understanding that emotions influence our decisions and our physical well-being, and when we allow the negative to take over our attention entirely, it is very likely that it negatively affects the quality of the decisions we make.

The same thing happens with the success and the positive emotions that it generates. When events and positive emotions derived from success capture our attention, we also fail to see other things, such as changes in the market, improvements in our processes or decisions, appearance of new competitors, extreme dependence on suppliers, trends that lead to our users or consumers towards new products or services.

Recognizing the role of emotion in our decisions, guarding our mental openness to the things that happen to us, cultivating the permanent questioning, understanding that the conditions of the environment change even though we would sometimes prefer them to be immutable are the only defenses that we have to put the emotions in our favor, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, "we are the masters of things when the emotions respond to us".