The brain doesn't really care about logic

 　　We often talk about thinking and doing things logically, but the truth is that illogic is actually what the brain presupposes.

　　Although emotions often make people act impulsively and illogically, without them, a person's behavior becomes more illogical; although the logical decision before evaluating a stranger should be made after spending some time with that person, in fact, the brain makes us form a first impression within 0.1 seconds of seeing that person; although new things are coming out all the time and the evaluation of new The evaluation of things should be made only after using the new thing for a period of time, yet the brain often makes us make a good or bad evaluation based on our past experience at the first sight of this new thing ......

　　The brain has all kinds of ways to lie and say "this is logical".

No emotion leads to difficult choices

　　Is there any logic to the following behaviors of this person? --He spends an afternoon at work thinking about whether to categorize computer files and, if so, by date, type, or some other criteria. Obviously, his behavior makes little to no sense and is illogical. But this man is real.

　　He was a patient of the American neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. This patient had a portion of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC for short in English) removed as a result of surgery for a brain tumor. This piece of cerebral cortex is located directly above our eye orbits and between the two temples.

　　After surgery, the patient's intelligence did not change much from what it was before surgery, and he was as focused and articulate as before. Only he soon lost his job, and his family members alienated him. Because in addition to the aforementioned document sorting, he often struggled for long periods of time with who to have dinner with or who to do business with. Even when a choice was finally made, however, that choice was often not good for him.

　　Another patient Damasio met was similar, often unable to make a choice, and the final choice was often less than wise. Both of these patients had one thing in common, and that was that they had both had parts of their vmPFC removed. It is at least certain that the vmPFC is responsible for our aversion.

　　After the vmPFC was damaged, both patients' aversions seemed to disappear and in turn became numb. Thus, Damasio speculated that aversion is a prerequisite for making choices. The brain is very powerful, but it does not have unlimited mental resources to support us in making logical choices in every daily life decision.

　　Although aversion cannot help us make 100% logical choices, it can at least help us immediately eliminate those choices that are distasteful to us based on our past experiences, so that we can spend more energy on evaluating the choices and making the right ones. This is not too hard to understand. If we work with a person, but because he has a problem with his character, so that we have aversion, but also lead to failure, then wait until he next approached us to work together, at this time plus we have other options, based on aversion, we can quickly choose to avoid him as a priority, and choose other partners. If there is no more aversion, we have a greater probability to choose him again.

　　Thus, while emotions sometimes make us behave illogically, without them we are more likely to make illogical choices. Logic is a skill that takes a long time to train. However, even if you are a master of logic, it is still difficult to resist the "absurd" judgment brought by the brain in the first place.

The first impression takes only 0.1 seconds to form

　　The formation of the first impression does not take 3 minutes, the brain only needs 0.1 seconds, as well as a face alone, can give the face owner's subjective judgment of personality traits. An American psychologist did the following experiment.

　　The psychologist first collected 10,000 real faces, and then called 245 volunteers to conduct the experiment. The volunteers were asked to view 25 faces at random, and the faces were presented for 0.1 second, 0.5 second, 1 second, and no time limit. After viewing the faces, the volunteers were asked to rank the faces according to criteria such as trustworthiness and attractiveness. The psychologists also asked the volunteers how confident they were in their rankings to indirectly confirm whether they thought their judgment criteria were logical.

　　The results of the experiment showed that almost all volunteers had already made a good evaluation of the face owner's trustworthiness, attractiveness and ability within 0.1 seconds and were extremely confident in their ranking. In order to avoid that the volunteers were rushed to make a decision, the psychologists then presented the seen faces to the volunteers again, and then this time no time limit was given. The volunteers could look at the faces more closely and could also modify their ranking. However, only a small number of volunteers modified their answers, with almost no volunteers modifying their answers under the two criteria of trustworthiness and attractiveness.

　　This experiment illustrates that first impressions are formed far more quickly than we think. It only takes 0.1 seconds for a first impression to be formed. And once a first impression is formed, it is very strong. Even the most logical choice should be to carefully observe, investigate and falsify their initial impressions.

　　Psychologists speculate that the reason people are able to form first impressions so quickly may be the result of our ancestors evolving and then passing it on to us. Our ancestors lived in an environment where competition for survival was extremely fierce, and the materials of life were relatively scarce at that time. When they met a stranger, they had to judge him immediately and as accurately as possible, and the faster and more accurate the judgment, the higher the survival rate of the person. The genes associated with judgment are also more likely to be inherited, and we are born with the ability to form first impressions quickly.

　　It's just that human society has evolved at a much faster rate than ever before. In today's society, people are more connected to each other than ever before. Life is far more abundant than ever before, and people no longer have to go through the "life and death crisis" of meeting a stranger like our ancestors. Human beings have also continued to develop and grow. So the ability to "fall in love at first sight" is not very useful, and sometimes even become a hindrance.

　　Although the brain always makes us make illogical choices, but these choices are often correct, because logic and facts are not equal. Therefore, we don't have to be too concerned about our illogical behavior. Nor do we have to be demanding of our brain to always make our behavior logical. Sometimes, some illogical behaviors are correct instead