Week 24: Humans Are Rationally Emotional Strangers

Dear all,

Six basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise.

Emotions play a huge role in shaping how we think and behave. They are at the heart of the human experience, influencing how we see the world, interact with others, and make decisions. The emotions you feel each day can compel you to take action and influence both the big and small decisions you make in life.

The notion that humans are primarily rational beings has been a cornerstone of philosophical and psychological discourse for centuries. However, a growing body of evidence from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics suggests that emotions play a far more significant role in human decision-making than previously acknowledged.

Behavioral economics, a field pioneered by scholars like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, demonstrates that human decision-making is often irrational and influenced by cognitive biases. Kahneman’s work, particularly in Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), distinguishes between two modes of thinking: the fast, intuitive, and emotional system (System 1) and the slow, deliberate, and rational system (System 2). Research indicates that approximately 90% of decisions are made using System 1, highlighting the dominance of emotional reasoning over rational thought.

Many significant decisions made by humans are driven more by emotion than by pure reason.

Climate change, on the other hand, is not emotional. It has no basic emotions. It is as rational as it gets.

And yet, humanity struggles profoundly to connect with it, to process, respond to, and act on it. We are not on the same frequency. We seem to be speaking different languages, unable to understand each other at all.

If you're feeling emotional this Sunday morning, make an emotionally rational decision and read this newsletter. It will rationally explain why you should act.

And if you live in Europe, please, read it.