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Decisions governed by emotions shock!

Just been reading a book on negotiating called “Never Split The Difference” by retired FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss. It has all sorts of advice and strategies to help negotiate deals, contracts, salaries, and even relationships.

He now runs a company called The Black Swan Group with his son advising business, universities and government.

He quotes a book called “Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason and The Human Brain” by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Damasio studied people who had damaged the part of the brain where emotions are generated.

They all had one thing in common: They couldn’t make decisions. They could evaluate, rationalise and sum up the alternatives, but found it impossible to make the simplest choice.

It seems we can use logic to rationalise ourselves toward a decision but the actual decision itself is always governed by emotion.