How Our Brain Makes Decisions

A key finding from the research is that emotion plays a very important role in voter preferences – perhaps more important than reason in many voters.

Three major brain systems process decision and action. Emotion alerts us to potentially important challenges that affect our basic values, fears, and hopes – and so it often biases our decisions. Attention identifies and focuses on the key elements of the challenge. Reason uses memories of previous similar challenges and a repertoire of learned and improvised problem solving strategies to consciously determine how best to proceed.

If the challenge requires an immediate response, such as if I'm walking across the street and see a rapidly approaching car, subconscious brain systems automatically activate a rapid avoidance response that bypasses rational thought. I only need to know that something large is approaching very quickly. The car's brand, age, and service record are irrelevant.

Conversely, if I want to purchase a car, a rational consideration of such details is better than an impetuous purchase. A salesman who knows the car is flawed but really wants to sell it may thus gloss over important rational negatives and tout peripheral emotional positives in order to get me to make an emotional decision – a decision I may later regret.