Gut feelings and rationality are biologically intertwined

We utilize the frontal cortex to do the harder thing in social contexts—we praise the hosts for the incredible dinner; refrain from hitting the infuriating coworker; don’t make sexual advances to someone, despite our fantasies; don’t belch loudly during the eulogy.

During REM sleep, when dreaming occurs, the frontal cortex goes off-line, and dream scriptwriters run wild. Moreover, if the frontal cortex is stimulated while people are dreaming, the dreams become less dreamlike, with more self-awareness.

Briefly, the frontal cortex runs “as if” experiments of gut feelings—”How would I feel if this outcome occurred?”—and makes choices with the answer in mind.

-Behave, Robert Sapolsky

We often believe “gut feelings” and rationality are opposed, and that our smartness is so advanced that of course we make rational decisions and we have studied a long time to polish such a hard-earned, prestigious skill!

Biology tells otherwise, and don’t forget, biology is true, unlike thoughts (stories). The amygdala (the more impulsive, primitive part of the brain) and the frontal cortex (the more rational, socialized part) do not operate as opposites from each other. Rather, they each do their job at the same time, exchanging signals.

If you have been taught and firmly believe that the frontal cortex must always prevail, you are missing the point, and it may be valuable to review biology with humility. When choices are aligned across biological systems, much of the suffering most people take for granted fades away, because there is more alignment between behaviors and biological inputs and responses.