Why does emotion make us stupid?

There is no doubt that emotions produced by chemical, such as adrenaline, highjack rational thought and make us stupid. Why so?

 

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Its a testosterone thing

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Because our decision making is defined by losses, not gains. This makes fear more powerful than any other drive.

 

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Good point but I disagree with fear being the most powerful drive. I think love is, because it can cause every other emotion. It can cause anger, fear, jealousy, happiness, and sadness.

IMO, emotions are essential to our humanity; HOWEVER, what people fail to realize is that logic and reasoning should always be driving, whilst emotion rides shotgun, in an advisory role ONLY. It's when logic takes a nap and emotion starts driving is when stupid shit starts happening.

 

I think a lot of our emotions are driven by fear. Love, security, health, fame, wealth all have at their base, a basic survival instinct. Everything else becomes secondary when that is threatened.

 

Love is not driven by fear. But, love makes us stupid. Emotions will even make you think you're being rational, when your not.

 

True. I see what you mean, but I would consider fear (especially fear where survival is concerned) more of an instinct than an emotion. Most animals, with very basic or even no emotions, have fear of getting killed or eaten by predators; What makes a bird fly away when you walk towards it?
Fear may exist more consistently and may be more widespread than love, but when love is in the picture, it can also cause fear (fear of losing someone you love). I don't think fear can cause love though.

EDIT: You beat me to it John!!! GRRR! LOL

 

Thats hormones.

 

Hormones are chemicals. Chemicals/hormones in our bodies also cause sadness, anger, jealousy, and happiness, and, you guessed it...fear.

 

Perhaps it's individual, whether love or fear predominates.

There are mothers who kill their children just as there are mothers who will sacrifiece themselves for their children.

 

Why does love or fear have to predominate?

 

I wouldn't use the word stupid, I'd say irrational. For example, if you walk into a room and you see a 900 lb Bear sitting down, you need adrenalin boosts to be able to achieve enough instantenous energy to fight or flee. Adrenalin boosts also prevents people from fainting, otherwise it can be disasterous if you are camping in the woods and suddenly see a bear.

 

What's the difference between irrational and stupid? Adrenalin seems to highjack our rational thoughts to get us to act by either fighting, fleeing or freezing. Given a chance, our rational minds might think of a better alternative.

 

There aren't very many serious situations in life that supply rational thought with enough data to completely govern decisions.

Most productive reasoning is done in the service of emotional needs and other requirements of life, I would bet.

I recall a biographer of Immanuel Kant commenting that Kant always thought everything through rationally, "which is probably why he never married" .

 

First, I would ask anyone drawing a distinction between "emotion" and "instinct" to explain that further. I think that emotion is just the word we use to describe human instinctual responses (or at least the mental state which made us respond in the first place).

I've always imagined that the purpose of emotion was (i) rational processes sometimes take too long and/or (ii) at the end of the day, aren't much more trustworthy than the emotional response. As to the former, imagine you do stumble upon a 900 lb bear. A rational reflection on how to react might take you a few seconds (since there are alternatives to consider)...faster action may have been a greater survival advantage than slow,plodding rationality.

As for the second factor, we often analyze situations incorrectly or based on imperfect information anyway, and emotion may therefore be a better solution than a rational one because it is nearly equally accurate and because it saves us time, effort and energy in the long run, or otherwise provides some survival advantage. Rationally speaking, there's no compelling reason to have children (it's not clearly because being parents makes us happy, as parents are likely less happy [1] [2] than non-parents). Love and the desire for sex provide us with a genetic advantage because they stop us from rationally analyzing our relationships. (All very "Schopenhauer," of course, but when it comes to love and sex, I think Schopenhauer probably had it right).

 

emotions do not make us stupid. Rational thought without emotions is like math, it has no way to connect to reality. If you are disconnected from your emotions and not used to feeling them, then they can seem to knock you off course. But the truth is you were off course before.

 

Good point, but, really, there is nothing irrational about being afraid of a bear in a room you've just entered.

 

Feelings we call love are appropriate in certain situations and feelings we call fear are appropriate in others. One does not have to choose between love and fear, in fact being afraid is loving in many situations.

 

Emotions don't make us stupid. you're just being stupid.

and emotions are NOT "produced" by chemicals, the chemicals are produced by emotions.

 

Absolutely.