ANNA – Antagonistic Neuro Navigation Atlas
Political decision-making part 7
Therefore it makes sense to abstract, to develop a pattern in order to have the chance to link the many complex influencing factors in a meaningful way. In our sense, pattern means the simplified representation of how political decisions are made in the human brain. Ergo: By means of a thought experiment, we create a model that helps us sell political content.
The complex mixture of sensory processing of political content must first be perceived by the recipient, secondly linked, and thirdly processed and evaluated before a decision is made.
Our brain, however, is calibrated to reduce complexity and does not want to make much of an effort even when acting, because energy has to be saved. Experts agree that more than 90 percent of all our decisions are made without our conscious input. Our subconscious does it for us in energy-saving mode. Our conscious mind couldn't come close to doing that out of sheer capacity limitations.
But what exactly is happening in our brain, subconscious, conscious. We have no idea how and why synapses communicate by means of electrical impulses, whether the imaging techniques in fMRI really allow us to draw conclusions about how the brain works, and when exactly and why our consciousness is switched on. We only know this. The human brain knows very little about itself.
Brain researchers believe they have discovered that humans use two completely different systems to cope with life.
Our autopilot, or "unconscious data processing," lets us master everyday life. Not only bodily functions, but all routine everyday things are controlled. The basis are genetic prerequisites and already acquired knowledge as well as experiences.
The pilot, i.e. "conscious data processing", only comes into play when a difficult, unfamiliar, new situation arises. Consequently, the search for a new solution forces thinking. And when we reflect on this, we have to realize that we think quite rarely. No matter whether we are driving a car, shopping or watching television, we do not need conscious thinking. The automatic mode is quite sufficient for this.
Brain researchers also believe that the autopilot determines our behavior much more than we would like and far surpasses conscious thinking in terms of performance. The subconscious mind is capable of processing information both quickly and in parallel, mastering volumes of data that our conscious mind could never, ever manage.
So when we know so little of the real causes of our actions, we simply deal with the symptoms. What we can perceive is that human brains are different and accordingly make different decisions.
Many studies (also scientific) no matter if behavioral psychology, empirical research and even brain research often do not take this into account. Studies or surveys are sold as scientific studies, in which the test persons are either not classified at all or only sociologically (gender, age, education, income, etc.) (and furthermore, very often only students are surveyed).
Why do certain ways of acting and thinking make sense for some brains and not for others? What are the influencing factors and what patterns can be derived from them? Can a model derived from neuroscientific findings help us to analyze the formation of political will and to draw conclusions for political action?
Decide for yourself. With ANNA.
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