Role of Emotion
in Decision Making
Brain
Research at Stanford: Decision Making
Video
Summary
According to Professor Baba Shiv emotions play a
crucial role in the decision making process allowing us to resolve decision
conflict and reliably choose a course of action that will result in one emerging
from the decision making process confident in and convicted to the decision
(Shiv, 2011).
The
resultant decision confidence is the level of belief that you have made the right
decision. The greater your decision
confidence, the more it shows in your body language Others pick up on your
confidence and also grow confident that you have the right course of
action because “confidence is contagious”
(Shiv, 2011).
Decision
confidence also allows others to experience the passion you have for the course
of action and believe it as well because “passion is persuasive” (Shiv, 2011).
The
confidence you emerge from the decision making process with has a huge impact
on the extracted utility you get from the experience in terms of commitment, effort,
motivation, and engagement (Shiv, 2011).
An
example of a situation in which I was not confident occurred while I was in the
Air Force. The commander was reviewing
the files of Airmen in the squadron who were eligible for re-enlistment. He was troubled by one Airman’s file and
asked me to look it over and give him my opinion. He gave me a day to review it, but needed to
get it turned in. I glanced at it and
immediately understood why the commander was troubled. On the form the supervisor indicated that he
recommends the Airman for reenlistment, but in the file the same supervisor had
documented and filed around a dozen negative incidents over the previous two
years the most recent was filed about six weeks prior to this tis review. I assumed the supervisor made a mistake. When I read the file, I decided that the
airman should be denied reenlistment he was averaging one incident every two
months or so. I was confident that the
record alone justified denial, but I did not have any background information and
I wanted to talk to the supervisor. The
supervisor was not there. I talked to
the flight chief and asked him to bring a few people to the conference room the
following morning. I spoke to coworkers,
the trainer, the supervisor, and the flight chief. None of them had anything bad to say about
the Airman. I held the flight chief and
the supervisor back and shared my opinion and my immediate reaction the file. I also explained that I believed we were
missing something because the supervisor is writing and not talking. Writing had not corrected the behavior
problem. What was next? They remained firm that other than minor
issues this was an Airman we needed to keep.
I told both that of them that I would follow their opinion against what
I believed to be right and asked them to leave.
I took the record back to the commander explained everything that happened. He agreed with me for what it was worth.
A few
months later, the Airman was pulled over for a possible DUI. When the police searched his vehicle they
arrested him for DUI and possession of multiple illegal drugs. An Airman’s life ruined and we completely
missed it
I was
curious but trying to stay open minded when I reviewed the file. When I finished I had a couple of questions
but I was confident that I had made the right decision. Shiv states that emotion in decision making
allows us to resolve decision conflict, reliably take a course of action and
emerge from the decision confidently (Shiv, 2011).I was not happy about the
decision, I could defend it and justify it but the decision to deny someone the
opportunity to reenlist is a somber, reflective time. The next morning everything I thought I knew about
this Airman was wrong. Now, overnight, an
airman that gets a filed Letter of Counseling every two months is Airman of the
Quarter material. I was told the letters
were just to get his attention. Everyone
I spoke to told me the same thing. He’s a
good guy we need to keep him in. At this
point, I was at a loss for words and did not care to hear any more of
theirs. In seconds, I went from disappointed
to confused to questioning my own judgement to angry…no, I was mad. I was forced to do the wrong thing for the
right reason. That is where I got stuck. I briefly spoke with the supervisor and
flight chief. I gave myself a minute and
took the file back to the commander.
A
decision that better fits Shiv’s concept in terms of confidence happened when I
was deployed for a five-day exercise as the production superintendent. During the briefings that kicked off the
exercise, the supervisor of flying (SOF) and I were planning how we would
communicate, discussing our expectations, and generally looking for the best
way to conduct operations during the exercise.
The briefer was discussing the mission profile and aircraft
configuration and I thought it was odd that we had one ten-hour orbit assigned
but the aircraft were configured with line 1 and line 2 mission capable at crew
show and a mission ready spare. Mission
ready is significant. It is an alert
configuration that requires additional resources to maintain. It struck me as overkill for the scenario we
were flying. So, I asked the SOF what he
knew about it. He had not heard anything
either. I noticed a few more maintainers
than we normally brought on a trip like this.
He told me that he learned that there was an additional full crew here
for operations. I told him it looked
like they were planning to fly two orbits.
They had the resources to have all three aircraft in the air at the same
time. The SOF and I decided that we
would hold the spare until forced to use it and keep people available just in
case. Of course the situation would
dictate our reaction but our going in was do not release the spare and be
prepared to launch the spare as a second orbit.
The first day tested our theory when the second line experienced a
hydraulic leak that would delay take off by an hour. The aircraft commander happened to be the
SOF’s squadron commander. He immediately
wanted to step to the spare. The SOF is
supposed to disregard real life and see him as just a pilot but he was caught
off guard and he was intimidated. I
responded that there were options and burning the spare was premature. I did not know how it came out but I hoped it
sounded firm and authoritative. I was
nervous until I heard his response which was we need to take it to relieve the
airborne crew on time. He was trying to
convince me to do it maybe even trying to bully me a little. I grew more confident as I told him there was
no requirement to relieve the crew at a certain time, only to cover the orbit. Extending the crew could buy us hours. Then he definitely tried to bully and
intimidate me. He said that I obviously
do not know how important the sortie was he would take the spare on his
own. This statement made me instantly
angry, but I took a breath and assured him that I did know how important his
line was. The SOF and I discussed it in detail. There is enough crew duty day for the
airborne crew to fly the entire orbit if needed. So the second line could cancel without issue. I gained control at that point. I said none of that would be necessary because
we had the part and people and I was still confident we would meet or beat our estimate. Then I left and walked around the aircraft explaining
the sense of urgency we needed when power came on. He was not happy that I left, but I knew we
had gone far enough that he would not push the issue further when they applied
power to the aircraft and everyone got back to work. He gave me until the estimated completion to
be ready to go or they would step. I agreed
to continue the discussion at that time.
Not long after that the spare was launched by exercise input. I was elated. I am sure it was impossible to hide it
although I tried. I did not want to
appear like bad sport but I was thinking I told you so. The spare took off 4 minutes earlier than he
did.
This
banter back and forth was not me making a decision. It was me protecting a decision the SOF I and
I made the night before. The commander
could have made it a lot harder on me, he leveled off, and I was glad. I was determined not to release the spare until
directed to do so by the deployment commander.
I would have defended this position defiantly, but he did not take it
there.
I was
extremely confident the decision was right the minute we made it. I was also confident that it would be a
decision we would have to protect. We logically
sorted through the information we could see and it pointed to something we both
understood. I was excited and was ready
to get things rolling.
When the
aircraft commander demanded the spare, I felt a little nervous, but when the
SOF got intimidated my confidence wavered.
My confidence came back quickly because I was sure now the SOF and I got
it right. I was actually enjoying the
conversation. As I gained confidence, I
enjoyed myself more. I was very
comfortable in the scenario and my attitude became one of I am in control. This is most likely the point that Professor
Shiv described as confidence giving rise to passion took place. Everything felt right and I had the energy to
go on forever (Shiv, 2011). Unlike the
first example, I did not feel like emotions controlled the process. In fact, I felt they enhanced the process.
References:
Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to
think things through: A guide to critical thinking across the curriculum (4th
edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Shiv, B. (2011)Brain research at Stanford: Decision
making. Stanford Graduate School of
Business, Reunion 2011. Retrieved from: https://erau.instructure.com/courses/57522/assignments/905751?module_item_id=2904529
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