For example, why are you playing “Halo 3” instead of doing your income taxes?
Human beings are the only species smart enough to plan systematically for the future. But we often scrap our carefully made plans in favor of short-term gratification.
Gary Marcus, a professor of psychology at New York University, recently wrote and entertaining and insightful article in the Los Angeles Times that explains some of this strange behavior that we exhibit.
It’s the sloppy way evolution works
Basically different tasks require different kinds of memory. We can remember how to drive a car but tracking a long term goal (like “I want to lose weight.”) requires more memory precision.
Unfortunately evolution has built our most sophisticated memory technologies on top of older technologies and really didn’t work out how to integrate the two.
We can use our modern reasoning system to plan something in advance. But ancestral reflexive mechanisms, which evolved first, still have overriding control of our behavior.
When we are under pressure, stressed, tired or distracted (are we ever not?) we rely on the old reflexive mechanisms that taught us to act first and skip the deliberations.
We know how to run from lions. Great.
Back in the day, when our ancestors were confronted by a hungry pack of lions, their reflexive mechanisms told them to get out of there, not to hang around and think about possible options.
“Should we think about killing these lions for food, bring some home for the family?” they pondered. No way. We lean back on the time-tested but shortsighted machinery we’ve inherited from our ancestors.
Evolution failed to realize that remembering goals is not like recognizing objects (like lions). That’s why we’re weak at the goals.
There is a workaround
Our more recently evolved deliberate minds are powerful enough to regain at least some measure of control.
You can translate abstract goals into a form your ancestral systems can understand: if-then. If you find yourself in a particular situation, then take a specific action.
If you are on a diet, then you should avoid fatty food. If I see French fries, then I will run. Just like our ancestors did when they saw lions.
Professor Marcus is the author of “Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind.”
OK, I know your plan is to do something important right now. But give in to your evolutionary mechanisms and play some games for that jolt of short term gratification. Here’s a link to our web site.
