Decision making o Moral Thinking and Emotion a Challenging Dilemma video The anterior cingulate is a part of the brain that aids in conflict resolution between emotion and reason The train trolley dilemma You are standing next to a switch for train tracks There are five people on one set of tracks and one person on another A train is headed for the 5 people Is it morally justified to hit the switch that will lead the train to the set of tracks where only one person would be hit Most people would say yes Another scenario involves five people on train tracks about to be hit by a train while you and a very large person are standing on a bridge over the tracks Is it morally justified to throw the large person next to you over the bridge and onto the tracks to stop the train and save the five people on the tracks Many people are unsure In the second scenario regions of the brain involving emotion are active and it is a harder and longer decision for people to make o A similar pair of situations to the trolley dilemma In the show MASH a group of people is in danger of being discovered by the enemy when a baby begins to cry The mother has to make the decision whether to silence the baby or not She decides to smother the baby Vs a teenage mother is in the locker room before her gym class She doesn t want to deal with her baby so she throws it in the dumpster We identify the second scenario as obviously emotionally wrong while we struggle to make a decision about the first scenario Our emotions tell us that both situations are bad but reason tells us that the first situation is justified Psychopaths have differences in their anterior cingulates which might be what causes them to react differently to what we consider moral dilemmas o Rational choice theory view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen judging the value of the outcome and then multiplying the two Given a 10 chance of winning 500 or a 20 chance of winning 2000 the rational choice is the latter because there is a higher chance of winning AND a higher reward Purchasing lottery tickets is irrational because our chances of winning are so slim However we are swayed by the large amount of money o We are good at estimating frequency but not probability Doctor example Only 1 of the population has breast cancer and radiologists falsely identify cancer 10 of the time In a study 95 of doctors estimated the probability of cancer to be 75 whereas in the study in reality it was only 8 when they were told that 1 of the population has cancer However 46 identified whether or not people had breast cancer correctly when they were told that 10 out of 1000 people had breast o Framing effects when people give different answers to the same problem depending on cancer how the problem is phrased E g more people choose to do chemo therapy when told that 70 of people survive vs being told that 30 of people die o Sunk cost fallacy people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation E g you spent 100 on concert tickets but it is a miserable rainy day You are more likely to still go to the concert even though you would much rather stay at home comfortably o Heuristics a fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached Conjunction fallacy when people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event E g people think it is more likely that a woman is both a bank teller and writes poetry than just one or the other even though mathematically she is more likely to just fulfill one of those characteristics o Why we make decision making errors Prospect theory people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains People simplify available information the certainty effect People choose to prospect with the best value expected utility Frequency format hypothesis our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur not how likely they are to occur Probability is a more recent mathematical tool in evolution o Transforming information how we reach conclusions Belief bias people s judgments about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid Syllogistic reasoning determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true o Decision making and the brain People with prefrontal lobe damage do not show emotional reactions during risky decision making Insensitivity to future consequences Greater activation there in healthy individuals Similar effects in substance dependent individuals The neuroscience of risky decision making Skin conductance response behaviors with prefrontal damage A study was done on the autonomic nervous system s response and the behavioral change in risky decision making The control group showed an anticipatory reaction to choosing a card from a bad deck a deck in which they would lose money whereas individuals with prefrontal lobe damage did not show this reaction The control group also changed their behavior they began choosing more cards from the good deck the deck in which they won money while the group with prefrontal lobe damage did not change their behavior Similar behavior occurs in psychopaths they don t adapt to punishment o It is difficult for us to think outside the box with functional fixedness Functional fixedness is when objects have a pre assigned function that we are used to E g given a box a candle tacks and matches you are supposed to mount the candle on the wall and light it It is difficult for people to figure out how to do this The solution is to mount the box on the wall with the tacks to light a match and hold it to the bottom of the candle to drip wax into the box and to set the candle on the molten wax to get it to stay upright and then to light the candle This solution is tricky for us to think of because we wouldn t think of melting some of the candle s wax to fix in to the box because the function of the candle is to be lit not to be melted on the bottom o Insight vs analytical reasoning reasoning People experience aha moments flashes of insight as opposed to analytical Research subjects had to find associations between 3 word series and report their problem solving strategy insight or analytic EEG data revealed that insight problem solvers those with aha