Mind vs. Brain: Don't Make Decisions on an Empty Stomach
CT Scan of the Human Brain
Photo: Stockbyte / Getty Images
It's hardly surprising that the latter is exactly what scientific research finds, and recent research has demonstrated that our blood-sugar level can have a measurable impact on our decision-making abilities. If our blood-sugar level is too low we normally don't feel like making any serious decisions, and that's a good thing because we are less likely to use our reason in whatever decision we are asked to make. Instead we use intuition — not a process that is guaranteed to lead to wrong decisions, but frankly I'd rather rely on reason.
Psychologists have known for a long time that having a decoy option in a decision-making task draws people to choose a reasonable option that is similar to the decoy. Dr Masicampo and Dr Baumeister suspected that students who had been asked to work hard during the video and then been given a drink without any sugar in it would be more likely to rely on intuition when making this decision than those from the other three groups. And that is what happened; 64% of them were swayed by the decoy. Those who had either not had to exert mental energy during the showing of the video or had been given glucose in their lemonade, used reason in their decision-making task and were less likely to be swayed by the decoy.
It is not clear why intuition is independent of glucose. It could be that humans inherited a default nervous system from other mammals that was similar to intuition, and that could make snap decisions about whether to fight or flee regardless of how much glucose was in the body.
Source: The Economist
If we don't want to make decisions when our blood-sugar levels are too low, where is that counter-drive coming from? It's almost as if our brain is trying to protect us (meaning itself) from the bad decisions it is likely to make under such circumstances. Athletes are trained to pay attention to what their bodies are "telling" them in order to know when not to push themselves past physical limits where they might injure themselves. Maybe we should also pay more attention to what our brains are telling us; unfortunately, sinced our physical brains are us, it's tough to sort out what signals are what.
Regardless, the next time Jehovah's Witnesses of Mormons knock on your door and you're thinking about debating them, maybe you should give them some lemonade to drink first. Not only will it demonstrate good hospitality, but it might make for a far more productive discussion in the end. It certainly won't make discussion and debate any worse, will it?


Comments
Amen!
Whenever someone tells me that mind is independent of brain, I ask them what might happen to someone’s mind if I take a cro bar to their head?
In general, I think people who believe brain cannot account for mind or for all of mind are not familiar with the work of neuroscientists and congnitive scientists like Pinker, DeMasio, and Crick and Koch. The likely lean toward philosophers such as Chalmers, who is not nearly as studied in brains and brain function, as part of his degree in philosophy.
People who think the brain is an elaborate computer are probably on the wrong track too. One brain expert compared the brain to a rain forest in complexity. Abandoning spiritual and supernatural theories doesn’t mean that we are much closer to the real thing. I think you are basically right about the blood sugar, but there are many other determinants as well.
Nutrition programs in the schools? You bet. Republicans give morons a bad name.
When it comes to the J W’s, 7DA’s and
Mor(m)ons. I told them I wouldn’t be so ill mannered as to come to their places to tell them that their way was wrong
and they should adopt a healthier, Skeptic/Atheist, lifestyle. I was then told they were obeying Jesus in proselytising. I replied that . “Then he was just as ill mannered as they.”
It wasn’t until I had this published in the local newspaper that all visits stopped.
P S The Owner/Editor is also an Atheist.
tomedgar@halenet.com.au
John Hanks, you actually made some sense this time (maybe because you refered to another’s findings & thoughts)… then you spoil it with your pathalogical anti-republican jab… you are incorrigible… & a damn fool… take your meds before they Baker-act you…