From Creating Passionate Users: Think… or be afraid

There are simply too many situations where you just don’t have time

to wait for your cortex to kick in, so your brain has another mechanism

for acting without the overhead of involving your cortex first. And

even if your cortex did get the news, taking the time to think could get you killed… by the time you come up with a plan, it’s too late to execute.

And thousands of years ago, the

humans who did NOT stop to think were the ones who stayed alive long

enough to… breed. Their “wait, I have to weigh the tradeoffs here”

counterparts were clubbed to death, eaten by tigers, and flattened by

falling boulders. Darwin won, and here we are stuck with legacy brains.

It basically boils down to this point: You can’t be afraid and rational at the same time.

Interesting.  Makes me think how reasonable people’s reactions are

when they’re based on fear.  Makes me think whether the concept of

rational fear is valid at all.

Kathy Sierra’s post further expounds on how, in view of this concept,

fear can be used as an agent against rational and logical

thinking.  Psy-war, in other words.

What if your goal is to convince them to do something that’s not in

their best interest? One approach is to make sure that they stay as

fearful and anxious as possible, to make it more difficult for them to

focus and think rationally. It’s a trick that’s been used by

governments, managers, manipulate family members, and advertisers for ages.

Pretty cool concept.  Must … try … it … on … someone (mentally

focusing to get my point across).  Guess I’m too afraid

to get to think about this rationally at this point.

However, IMHO, this idea would be overridden by the possibility that

after careful consideration, fear shifts from that without basis to a

more reasonable and even rational one.  Here, the thinking (as

opposed to feeling) aspect of the brain would take charge.  And if

there’s still fear, then it’s got to be something well thought of.

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