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John Bargh Before thinking - How the unconscious man controls us
"The unconscious has a strong and often invisible effect on our behavior, sometimes in a formidable way. It shapes not only the people we are but also our future self and the goals we will achieve. "
contents
- The unconscious is an autopilot
- Evolutionary urge in the modern world
- Political values and evolutionary goals
- Truth and emotion
- Evolutionary fears shape the worldview
- Shopping and emotions
- memory
- The hidden present
- Effect of mere contact
- Helpless delivered?
- Change in the environment
- Self-control means: doing it in advance
- Habituation becomes the unconscious
- We can use the unconscious
The unconscious is an autopilot
We can not even actively remember our crucial imprints of the first years of life. The unconscious works like an autopilot. Studies have also shown that people who think rationally are more likely to talk about people when they hold a cup of hot coffee instead of a cold drink. Toddlers absorb cultural influences without being aware of them later on and dig them in so deeply that as adults, they even fall back on it if they consciously reject it.
In our everyday behavior the unconscious plays a central role. Only when we know that, can we avoid unwanted patterns of action and outsmart the unconscious. (Image: Vadym / fotolia.com) Evolutionary urge in the modern world
Humans, Bargh says, are endowed with internal impulses that developed in the very early stages of our evolutionary history. The consciousness is not at the center of our actions, but we would operate largely unconsciously. The strongest evolutionary urge to physically protect and survive shapes our actions as convictions - and that is unconscious. So we make our decisions in a fraction of a second. This makes sense, because conscious thinking and acting in extreme situations of evolution would have been too slow. But this unconscious thinking and acting has pitfalls, since it leads to objectively wrong ideas and stereotypes, so Bargh.
According to Bargh, our technological development goes much faster than our evolutionary-biological adaptation: "The fact that our unconscious tendencies have been shaped and adapted to a far more dangerous and long-ago world, a world in extreme cold, is easily overlooked and heat, drought and famine, hostile fellows and wild animals, harmful bacteria and poisonous plants threatened life. "
Political values and evolutionary goals
Therefore, the need for security is fundamental and has powerful influence on our values, norms and actions in modern life as well. This is noticeable, for example, in political elections. So Roosevelt as well as Obama Barack would have wanted to overcome the fear of social change. According to Bargh, people would become more conservative and reject changes when they feel threatened. It would be much easier to turn a liberal into a conservative than the other way round. Studies have shown that one can move a liberal to conservative attitudes by frightening him. Conversely, an experiment in which subjects were imaginarily physically invulnerable in a game led conservative attitudes to become liberal.
Historians have stated that the belief that society changes to the worse is a constant, in the case of Greeks and Aztecs alike. Since the world, objectively speaking, is not constantly changing to the worse, the reason for these ideas can not be more objective. We would consider internal transformations from childhood to adolescence to aging for external changes. But we are only aware of our emotional state in the present moment. Emotions attracted and held our consciousness. Older memories are for the most part associated with strong emotions.
The need for security, according to Bargh, is fundamental and has powerful influence on our values, norms and actions, even in modern life. This is noticeable, for example, in political elections. (Image: ra2 studio / fotolia.com) Truth and emotion
Recent pasts would become distant pasts and remain in the memory, because at that time they attracted our attention and triggered strong emotions - with objectivity that has little to nothing to do. What we believe to be true depends on our emotions, for example when we are angry and then calmer.
Today's social motives and actions are based on unconscious, evolutionary goals and are in their service. Therefore, according to Bargh, we should consciously check our gut feeling and, if there is no time, at least not take big risks for small goals, if our gut feeling recommends this.
Evolutionary fears shape the worldview
The importance of the unconscious, for example, was clearly demonstrated in a study of the crime rate of the past eight years among 1,800 US citizens. While interviewees who had children at that time thought crime had increased, those who did not have children felt it had sunk. Because of the babies, the fear for the safety of the child had become the focus, while the childless did not have that fear. Protecting children from potential dangers keeps parents alert, and this responsibility is transferred to their worldview, Bargh said.
Shopping and emotions
Emotional states in the subconscious, according to Bargh, affect the price we pay for a commodity. We would attach more value to an object if we own it. If we disgust ourselves with an object, we would sell it at a lower price than usual to get rid of it. Sad people are ready to spend more on the same items than people who are not sad. Buy also help sad people to feel better. This is shown by the fact that antidepressants also lead to a moderation in buying.
Buying helps sad people to feel better. Conversely, antidepressants also lead to a moderation in buying. (Image: grki / fotolia.com) memory
Human memory is, according to Bargh, not only fallible. It can even be deceived by recent experiences, such as the fact that we often heard a name in the hours before. One study found that spouses rated their own work in the home much higher than the other's, simply because they had no memory of what the other was doing while away from home and remembering their own work. This is a point of frequent disputes: "I remember exactly that I did it last week."
The past will become a foreign land that we are happy to transfigure. Almost every generation believes that art, music, work ethics are not as good as they used to be, children are more spoiled, there are more crimes, etc. According to Bargh, the past is not just individual memory: "It is the past - the early past of our species, ours a unique past as a toddler we can not remember, and our recent past, which is now retreating into the rearview mirror of our day. "
The hidden present
Even with Korsakov's patients there is an unconscious memory. While she can not consciously remember recent events, her body stores memories of unpleasant stimuli. For example, patients with Korsakoff syndrome have the same patterns of dislike or dislike as people without the disorder, although they have little or no memory of humans and / or objects. The example of Korsakov's patients shows a fundamental mechanism: "While our conscious attention is often absorbed elsewhere, this unconscious control process helps us decide what to accept and what to reject, when to stay, and when to go."
Our rankings would amount to good or bad, strong or weak, active or passive. The most important thing is the rating in good or bad, then the potency and third, the vitality. In the evolution, we should first have to know if something out there is good or bad for us. If, for example, Stone Age man Ötzi had met a stranger, he would first have to assess whether he was good (friend) or evil (enemy), then how strong and ultimately how fast and healthy he was. The elementary mechanisms of approaching for them "good" and for them "bad" back, would have all the animals. And they also apply to humans: "Each of us still carries the relics of the entire evolutionary history of our species."
The unconscious control process helps us to decide what we accept and what we reject. Our ratings are good or bad, friend or foe. (Image: Thomas Reimer / fotolia.com) Effect of mere contact
The more often we have encountered something, the more positive we find it, writes Bargh and also explains the meaning in it. The more often we see things that do us no harm, the safer they are for us no danger. But if something disturbs the order we know, this effect will end immediately.
Helpless delivered?
Ironically, the very idea of a human acting rationally makes the unconscious stronger. On the other hand, if we accept that we do not really have free will, we could better control our actions in reality. So we could use our unconscious powers productively, for example by changing our environment.
Change in the environment
The best way to change behavior would be to change the environment. If a person wants to acquire good habits and turn off bad ones, then he should remove the stimuli and opportunities that supported the bad habits from his environment. Effective self-controllers would leave unhealthy snacks while shopping, and if they want to reduce the alcohol, they would not fill the bar. People with good self-control could not resist temptations better than others in the narrower sense, but would be less exposed to them. True self-control involves the use of less willpower and effort to perform the desired actions.
Self-control means: doing it in advance
People with good self-control would do their life in advance. Because they use unconscious means to regulate themselves and make "necessary evils" such as sports, healthy eating or studying an everyday part of life - conscious self-control, however, is too exhausting and too unreliable, and prone to rationalization ("one Piece of cake a day does not hurt ") and excuses (" I had a hard day and just need to relax after work ").
Habituation becomes the unconscious
The use of external stimuli to control unwanted impulses and unwanted behavior is a powerful tool that can make significant lifestyle changes. Once a desired behavior is practiced, it becomes a new habit and a new routine. The first few weeks are the hardest, then run the routine from routinely. Bargh quotes athlete dr. George Sheehan: "The body wants to do the same thing as yesterday. If you ran yesterday, he wants to run today. If not, he does not want it. "
The setting determines our behavior by far the strongest. In the church we are quiet, talkative at dinner outside the house, loud and boisterous at football. At the fast food we would order the food at the counter, in a fancy restaurant we wait until we are led to a table.
We can use the unconscious
The psychologist concludes, "By tuning the strings of our minds with our intentions, we can fundamentally improve our health, peace of mind, career, and relationships." (Dr. Utz Anhalt)