This is fantastic material!! Such an interesting and personally thought provoking topic. Here are some of my answers to the first set of questions with regard to the affect heuristic
The affect heuristic is one that I have applied numerous times throughout my life, often multiple times per day. I would say that its a true statement that my primary operative frame for decision making was filtered through this heuristic for most, if not all of my twenties.
It seems to show up the most whenever I am faced with a situation where I am able to perceive some kind of judgment from others based on whatever it is I choose to say, be, do, represent myself with/as. anything that could elicit a response from others where there is potential for them to look at me in a n unfavorable light.
It is most destructive to others because I do not allow them to have their own thoughts and feelings about me in any given situation. I prejudge their motives, responses, thoughts, and inner heart desires based on assumptions and biases that I hold rather than allowing them to be who they are. I see this as destructive because it destroys the potential for any meaningful relationship to be formed between myself and much of the world around me. I shut people out before we have a chance to get any steam rolling regarding ways where we might help one another or have any kind of common bond. I see great potential for this to cause pain in other people because, while I may not perceive that I am doing harm, I am very likely cold, curt, cutting, short tempered and generally rude in my interactions all out of a desire to protect my feelings and being motivated from a place of controlling the environment around me to suit my desire to be loved and seen as worthy of love.
In the exact same ways, I do harm to myself. I desire love and relationship, yet applying the affect heuristic in the ways that I have results in very shallow, cold, unloving relationships that all could have been quite different had I chosen to seek truth and understanding rather than move from emotional bias and assumptions.
Yes, I can see being skewed toward emotionality as a weakness because it becomes very easy to cloud truth and reason when we are too consumed by emotional responses. Anger is not a great thing to operate from when we are trying to understand ways to solve problems. That emotional filter has a very high risk of bias and can cause a person to make decisions in a blind rage where they are not able to recognize good, love, empathy, compassion or their own capacity to have misjudged a situation. When I am angry, I am very defensive, I am quick to respond, and its often through a very shallow and spiteful frame of mind. This usually will end up poorly, to say the least.
I can also see that having an understanding of our own emotionality can be very beneficial as it could be signals to us to examine our surroundings in a much deeper way than we had been before. Again, my anger is usually a response to a perceived threat. This may be real and I would do well to examine the situation for any truth to that perception. If a real threat is present, I may apply the affect heuristic and protect myself from danger and harm.
As you've pointed out, skewing towards emotionality as the foundational basis for decision making is errant and a weakness. One that I definitely suffer from. I see this a lot within my comfort seeking behavior. In this, I base decisions off of what would allow me to avoid painful or uncomfortable emotions. In short, seeking happiness only at the expense of all other things (other people/truth/etc.)
However, I could see the skewing towards emotionality as potentially a great strength. As I see it, emotions serve as great indicators of our environment and drivers of our movement. For example, anger could indicate to an individual that there has been a wrong and would be the impetus to seek correction. Feeling sadness deeply can be a driver towards connecting with community or moving towards empathy, particularly in the context of grief. Without that emotion present, one may be able to logically conclude that a wrong has been done or that grieving is appropriate. However, that emotional depth allows for a warmth in communication, particularly from person to person in the form of a shared emotion. Communicating at that level in a healthy way is a great strength and one I hope to nurture. Of course, emotion must always be tested for its truth value using the thinking systems you are outlining within your writings lest we fall victim to the affect heuristic and the delusion it may generate. Awesome essay, Shane!
I appreciate what you articulated here about the positive utility of emotions to motivate constructive action. When I was reading about the affect heuristic I definitely skewed toward writing off emotion completely as an untrustworthy source of information for making decisions. Even though I do this frequently, it never goes well, and I have a confirmation bias operating there. Part of what all of this is addressing is the failure to assess information in its appropriate context and emotions are no exception. If they are tested and found to be valid, then it would be appropriate to act on them and could result in the kind of connection you're talking about.
Good one! I am seeing that in order to process situations (truly) logically, it could take some time on the front end; however, I believe that it can also become second nature to us. I can see pain aversion pretty consistently in my life, especially with situations that directly impact me.
Lots of great questions in this essay! I believe I use the affect heuristic more than I’d like to admit. These are going to be great to mull over. Grateful for this material!
The affect heuristic, and appeal to emotion, are both modes of thinking that I identify heavily with. I am almost constantly conflating emotional experience with objective truth; emotion is my reference point, and then I form truth statements from those emotions, and live in a painful delusion- painful because I have been waking up to reality and am faced with the simultaneous fact that it is untenable and insane. That said, I absolutely apply the affect heuristic and favor my emotional stability over objective truth, which is a disturbing thing. It's hard to say where it shows up the most, because it's just constant. I will say that situations (like now!) where there is a risk of being wrong, or where a weakness or deficiency might be exposed. That is a major area, and incidentally probably the one that is most destructive to others. What this does is it paints anyone in my environment as an attacker and threat. This is what you articulated in the Cognitive Dissonance post. This manifests as, for example, anger which motivates competitiveness and/or punishing self or others, anxiety which motivates shutting down, fear which motivates defensiveness, etc. It's destructive in the sense that others bear the brunt of these behaviors, and inhibits them from seeing reality clearly as well. This very mechanism is the area I have also done the most harm to myself, because if I am the source of my own imperfection (e.g. I fail), then I am now the object of punishment. All of this helps myself and others to feel negatively and potentially reason fallaciously from that place about themselves, the world, and others, as you have articulated that reasoning from fear doesn't allow for proper reasoning.
I can certainly see skewing toward emotionality as a weakness, and I think perhaps to too drastic a degree as I articulated in my response to Joel's comment. In as far as it would be a true weakness, it would be in the sense I described at the beginning of my post where emotions are chosen and truths formed from them at the expense of objective truth and logic. That type of biasing is just cowardice, and favoring/skewing toward the the "survivable" pain you mentioned, which is such a strange and interesting concept. I was remembering how in the very first post you did, you said that pain would be present no matter what, so why not do the scary, hard thing? Why indeed. While the illogical reasoning in this would have me believe I am making the strong choice, the truth is that I am choosing to shore up my unassailability and disown my pain, making it the responsibility and fault of others. To keep context here...skewing toward emotionality would be a weakness insofar as one's emotions more closely support poor logic, and the more that skewing continues on that path, the more it is reinforced. As a strength, on the other hand, skewing toward emotionality could allow for heightened processing and decision making- with the proper weight, as you mentioned. If I skew toward emotionality, but choose to evaluate those emotions before responding, then the result would be something like what Joel described. Additionally, I think possessing the skill of observing and appropriately identifying emotions will support sound reasoning; if I name my emotions accurately for what they are, I can understand their impact on my thinking. Inversely, if I truly feel sad but it is currently manifesting as anger, and I skew toward emotionality without appropriately identifying that emotion, I am far less likely to take the appropriate action or understand the cause/influencing factors of that emotion.
This is fantastic material!! Such an interesting and personally thought provoking topic. Here are some of my answers to the first set of questions with regard to the affect heuristic
The affect heuristic is one that I have applied numerous times throughout my life, often multiple times per day. I would say that its a true statement that my primary operative frame for decision making was filtered through this heuristic for most, if not all of my twenties.
It seems to show up the most whenever I am faced with a situation where I am able to perceive some kind of judgment from others based on whatever it is I choose to say, be, do, represent myself with/as. anything that could elicit a response from others where there is potential for them to look at me in a n unfavorable light.
It is most destructive to others because I do not allow them to have their own thoughts and feelings about me in any given situation. I prejudge their motives, responses, thoughts, and inner heart desires based on assumptions and biases that I hold rather than allowing them to be who they are. I see this as destructive because it destroys the potential for any meaningful relationship to be formed between myself and much of the world around me. I shut people out before we have a chance to get any steam rolling regarding ways where we might help one another or have any kind of common bond. I see great potential for this to cause pain in other people because, while I may not perceive that I am doing harm, I am very likely cold, curt, cutting, short tempered and generally rude in my interactions all out of a desire to protect my feelings and being motivated from a place of controlling the environment around me to suit my desire to be loved and seen as worthy of love.
In the exact same ways, I do harm to myself. I desire love and relationship, yet applying the affect heuristic in the ways that I have results in very shallow, cold, unloving relationships that all could have been quite different had I chosen to seek truth and understanding rather than move from emotional bias and assumptions.
Yes, I can see being skewed toward emotionality as a weakness because it becomes very easy to cloud truth and reason when we are too consumed by emotional responses. Anger is not a great thing to operate from when we are trying to understand ways to solve problems. That emotional filter has a very high risk of bias and can cause a person to make decisions in a blind rage where they are not able to recognize good, love, empathy, compassion or their own capacity to have misjudged a situation. When I am angry, I am very defensive, I am quick to respond, and its often through a very shallow and spiteful frame of mind. This usually will end up poorly, to say the least.
I can also see that having an understanding of our own emotionality can be very beneficial as it could be signals to us to examine our surroundings in a much deeper way than we had been before. Again, my anger is usually a response to a perceived threat. This may be real and I would do well to examine the situation for any truth to that perception. If a real threat is present, I may apply the affect heuristic and protect myself from danger and harm.
As you've pointed out, skewing towards emotionality as the foundational basis for decision making is errant and a weakness. One that I definitely suffer from. I see this a lot within my comfort seeking behavior. In this, I base decisions off of what would allow me to avoid painful or uncomfortable emotions. In short, seeking happiness only at the expense of all other things (other people/truth/etc.)
However, I could see the skewing towards emotionality as potentially a great strength. As I see it, emotions serve as great indicators of our environment and drivers of our movement. For example, anger could indicate to an individual that there has been a wrong and would be the impetus to seek correction. Feeling sadness deeply can be a driver towards connecting with community or moving towards empathy, particularly in the context of grief. Without that emotion present, one may be able to logically conclude that a wrong has been done or that grieving is appropriate. However, that emotional depth allows for a warmth in communication, particularly from person to person in the form of a shared emotion. Communicating at that level in a healthy way is a great strength and one I hope to nurture. Of course, emotion must always be tested for its truth value using the thinking systems you are outlining within your writings lest we fall victim to the affect heuristic and the delusion it may generate. Awesome essay, Shane!
I appreciate what you articulated here about the positive utility of emotions to motivate constructive action. When I was reading about the affect heuristic I definitely skewed toward writing off emotion completely as an untrustworthy source of information for making decisions. Even though I do this frequently, it never goes well, and I have a confirmation bias operating there. Part of what all of this is addressing is the failure to assess information in its appropriate context and emotions are no exception. If they are tested and found to be valid, then it would be appropriate to act on them and could result in the kind of connection you're talking about.
Good one! I am seeing that in order to process situations (truly) logically, it could take some time on the front end; however, I believe that it can also become second nature to us. I can see pain aversion pretty consistently in my life, especially with situations that directly impact me.
Lots of great questions in this essay! I believe I use the affect heuristic more than I’d like to admit. These are going to be great to mull over. Grateful for this material!
The affect heuristic, and appeal to emotion, are both modes of thinking that I identify heavily with. I am almost constantly conflating emotional experience with objective truth; emotion is my reference point, and then I form truth statements from those emotions, and live in a painful delusion- painful because I have been waking up to reality and am faced with the simultaneous fact that it is untenable and insane. That said, I absolutely apply the affect heuristic and favor my emotional stability over objective truth, which is a disturbing thing. It's hard to say where it shows up the most, because it's just constant. I will say that situations (like now!) where there is a risk of being wrong, or where a weakness or deficiency might be exposed. That is a major area, and incidentally probably the one that is most destructive to others. What this does is it paints anyone in my environment as an attacker and threat. This is what you articulated in the Cognitive Dissonance post. This manifests as, for example, anger which motivates competitiveness and/or punishing self or others, anxiety which motivates shutting down, fear which motivates defensiveness, etc. It's destructive in the sense that others bear the brunt of these behaviors, and inhibits them from seeing reality clearly as well. This very mechanism is the area I have also done the most harm to myself, because if I am the source of my own imperfection (e.g. I fail), then I am now the object of punishment. All of this helps myself and others to feel negatively and potentially reason fallaciously from that place about themselves, the world, and others, as you have articulated that reasoning from fear doesn't allow for proper reasoning.
I can certainly see skewing toward emotionality as a weakness, and I think perhaps to too drastic a degree as I articulated in my response to Joel's comment. In as far as it would be a true weakness, it would be in the sense I described at the beginning of my post where emotions are chosen and truths formed from them at the expense of objective truth and logic. That type of biasing is just cowardice, and favoring/skewing toward the the "survivable" pain you mentioned, which is such a strange and interesting concept. I was remembering how in the very first post you did, you said that pain would be present no matter what, so why not do the scary, hard thing? Why indeed. While the illogical reasoning in this would have me believe I am making the strong choice, the truth is that I am choosing to shore up my unassailability and disown my pain, making it the responsibility and fault of others. To keep context here...skewing toward emotionality would be a weakness insofar as one's emotions more closely support poor logic, and the more that skewing continues on that path, the more it is reinforced. As a strength, on the other hand, skewing toward emotionality could allow for heightened processing and decision making- with the proper weight, as you mentioned. If I skew toward emotionality, but choose to evaluate those emotions before responding, then the result would be something like what Joel described. Additionally, I think possessing the skill of observing and appropriately identifying emotions will support sound reasoning; if I name my emotions accurately for what they are, I can understand their impact on my thinking. Inversely, if I truly feel sad but it is currently manifesting as anger, and I skew toward emotionality without appropriately identifying that emotion, I am far less likely to take the appropriate action or understand the cause/influencing factors of that emotion.