Emotions vs Logic

A couple of weeks back, I posted a LinkedIn poll on whether people make decisions on emotions or on logic. About 63% of respondents to that poll voted for "logic" which, honestly speaking, got me interested in exploring further.

In his must read book, Never Split The Difference, former FBI lead hostage negotiator Chris Voss mentions that we have two systems of thoughts in our mind.

• System 1: Fast, instinctive, and emotional.
• System 2: Slow, deliberate and logical.

He says that System 1 is far more influential. We react emotionally (using System 1) to a suggestion or question. Then that System 1 reaction informs and in effect creates the System 2 answer.

Does this apply to our purchasing decisions? According to Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of our purchase decision making takes place subconsciously (emotional decision, not logical).

Some might argue that the decision making would differ based on whether it's for personal reasons or business reasons. So what should sales people do? Use logic? Or emotions? Would using emotions be equivalent of manipulation?

Selling is not about convincing or manipulating others. It's about influencing.

Influence is the ability to move people to a desired state of action - Bob Burg

It's influencing people to take a decision that is going to help them, be more productive, be a value-add to them, fill a gap in their current situation.

In Never Split The Difference, Chris mentions about an experiment he does in his negotiations class where he asks groups of two to share $10 amongst each other. If the proposer and acceptor can agree on the split, they keep what they decided. If they don't, then they return $10 to Chris. Almost always it happens that Chris gets his $10 back. The students are not able to agree upon a split. Whether it's $8/$2, $7/$3, $6/$4, someone is always feeling the split is not fair to them. And instead of keeping some amount, they keep nothing!

It's a matter of emotion, not logic that people are willing to loose rather than give the other person more money because they perceive it to be unfair. Logic would say, $2 is better than $0.

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman studied about "Framing Effect" where participants were asked to respond about a hypothetical life and death situation. 

Participants were asked to choose between two treatments for 600 people affected by a deadly disease. Treatment A was predicted to result in 400 deaths, whereas treatment B had a 33% chance that no one would die but a 66% chance that everyone would die. This choice was then presented to participants either with positive framing, i.e. how many people would live, or with negative framing, i.e. how many people would die.

• Positive Framing: Treatment A "Saves 200 lives". Treatment B "33% chance of saving all 600 people, 66% possibility of saving no one."
• Negative Framing: Treatment A "400 people will die". Treatment B "33% chance that no people will die, 66% probability that all 600 will die."

Treatment A was chosen by 72% of participants when it was presented with positive framing ("saves 200 lives"). However, it dropped to 22% when the same choice was presented with negative framing ("400 people will die").

Clearly, this is an emotional decision making going on. Logically speaking, both options are exactly the same. It's just different framing of words.

• When we are buying anything, if we buy what we want, it's an emotional decision. If we buy what we need, it's a logical decision.
• Throwing a lavish wedding celebration is an emotional decision that we can easily justify.
• Throwing an extravagant birthday party is an emotional decision that we can easily justify.
• Buying a new mobile device costing thousands of dollars, even when the existing one is working just fine, is an emotional decision that we can easily justify.
• Buying new clothes even when the existing ones are doing fine, is an emotional decision that we can easily justify.

Doing something that we should not do (smoking, eating junk food etc.) is an emotional decision that we we can easily justify.

Not doing something that we should do (working out, eating healthy etc.) is an emotional decision that we we can easily justify.

In fact, Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio conducted a study on people who had damage in part of the brain where emotions are generated. He revealed they couldn't make decisions. They could describe what should be done in logical terms, but found it impossible to make even the simplest choices.

When it comes to decision making, heart rules over the mind!

If we want to do something, we find a reason.

If we don't, we find an excuse - Jim Rohn

We take decisions on emotion, and then justify those decisions using logic.

The trick is in being able to strike a healthy balance between our emotions and logic.

What are your thoughts? Please share in the comments section below.

Images Credits: Google Images