The Lazy Friend

Part 3

 (Recap: In my first article I explained that we have two processors in our head that are actively involved in our judgement making and I called them Brain and Mind. In my second article I explained what is judgement and what are the brief characteristics of brain and mind and how they work. In my third article I will talk in detail about role of brain in judgement making)

Rajkumar is my colleague. Age around 40s, some extra pounds and very disciplined in his work, he is on diet from last 4 months and have very good self-control and normally he is successful to avoid the high calorie foods in our monthly Pizza parties. Last week we went to a seminar and attained seminar for 4 hours and surprisingly in lunch I found Rajkumar losing control upon him. I saw him eating everything that he normally calls high calorie food and avoids. He told me that it’s very difficult for him to control in these types of seminars and events. Why he could not control in seminars? Brain is logical and self-control/ will power is under autonomy of brain while mind is not logical and goes by impressions so the question is why mind take control on brain after some time and in which situations brain succumbs in front of mind.

You might have also observed that we make resolutions, set the goals everything seems fine in the beginning but with the course of time we feel distracted. We deviate from our resolutions, from our goals. Self-control is the part of brain while distraction is the nature of mind so here again brain lose against mind.

Basically we make three types of judgements:

1. Some judgement where brain is only involved and mind doesn't interfere like calculations, reasoning etc
2. Some judgements where brain is involved but mind also interfere like judgements related to self-control and will power as mentioned above.       
3. Some judgements that are very routine kind of and mind makes the judgements like general talks, routine works.

The title Lazy Friend is for brain so that makes clear brain is our friend and most of the time it is right and gives correct advise but it doesn't mean that you can make all the judgements by brain or judgement made by brain are correct since it has its own limitations. Judgement made by solely brain may be wrong that is called logical fallacies that depends upon your logical reasoning and that can be improved. Judgements made by mind are also prone to incorrect since mind doesn't have any reasoning power, that is called cognitive bias but since these are routine judgements and stake is not high so the main judgements are second type of where brain and mind both are involved. Where judgement must be made by brain but brain loses the battle against mind. Why it happens?

Roy F. Baumeister is Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He is a social psychologist who is known for his work on the self, social rejection, belongingness, self-control, self-esteem, self-defeating behaviours, consciousness, and free will. He performed lot of experiments on self-regulation and presented the evidence that humans' ability to self-regulate is limited, and after using it there is less ability (or energy) to self-regulate and he called this phenomena as “Ego Depletion” that means if we are doing any activity where brain is involved for long time when we will do another activity after that brain will lose control and as brain loses control your automatic mind takes over. So we can say our friend (Brain) is lazy but why? To understand this we need to understand the metabolism property of brain.

The human brain is capable of 10¹⁶ processes per second and it consumes up to twenty percent of the energy used by the human body, more than any other organ. Brain metabolism normally relies upon blood glucose as an energy source. The brain stores glucose in the form of glycogen, albeit in significantly smaller amounts than that found in the liver or skeletal muscle. Although the human brain represents only 2% of the body weight, it receives 15% of the cardiac output, 20% of total body oxygen consumption, and 25% of total body glucose utilization.  The brain mostly uses glucose for energy, and deprivation of glucose, as can happen in hypoglycemia, can result in loss of consciousness and impaired judgement making. So brain is also a muscle and after using it sometime it exhausts same like any other muscle of your body. Suppose you can do 20 pushups when you are fresh but when your chest and triceps muscles are exhausted you can’t do even 5 pushups same happen with brain and same thing happened with Rajkumar. After spending 4 hours in seminar his brain was exhausted and in the lunch he lost the control against his mind that always wanted to eat those high calories food. The same happens with our resolutions and goals since brain have limited resources so after some time brain removes them from our priority lists and mind easily takes control.

A study published in 2010 conducted by some professors of of Columbia and Ben-Guron Universities looked at around 1100 judicial ruling over the course of 1 year concerning prisoner paroles and they found that right after breakfast and lunch, chances of getting paroles were highest. Around 60% of paroles were granted just after the judge had eaten a meal and only 20% just before lunch. The less glucose in judges’ bodies, the less willing they were to make the active choice of setting a person free and accepting the consequences and the more likely they were to go with the passive choice to put the fate of the prisoner off until a future date

So what is the solution for it? If you want the control over your mind by your brain: stay fresh. Take breaks. Get some sleep. Don’t make important decisions on an empty stomach. Marketing people know very well about ego depletion and they use this concept extensively. I have used extensively many times when I want my client to make favour for me I made them tired and negotiate when they are ego depleted state and many times when I want them make logical decision I contact them just after lunch. When I want my boss to sign my tour bills, I go to him when he is ego depleted state. So the next time if any sales person approach you and says that this offer is going to end very soon and you have to make decision immediately don’t take the decision. Cunning salesperson will always want you to take decision by mind not by brain. You brain is lazy but it is your friend.

Think statistically, do you know statistically, we have a 1 in 84 chance of dying in a vehicular accident, as compared to a 1 in 20,000 chance of dying in an plane crash that means journey in plane is around 20000 times safer that vehicle but still we believe journey in vehicle more safe than plane because we don’t think statistically since most of the time we are in ego depleted state.

Now by this time you must have realized that why Candies and snacks are placed close to market cash registers in the super markets.

In my next article I will talk about second processor: Mind. Now after writing this article I am feeling ego depleted need something to eat to give glucose to my brain. Catch you later, Bye.