Jonah Lehrer on decision-making

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Jonah Lehrer on decision-making

05 Mar 2009

Speakers: Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer talks about his initial interest in the process of decision making and the inspiration for his 2009 book The Decisive Moment.

He discusses the failure to make decisions in everyday life and the binary relationship between the emotional and the rational, criticising the argument that rationality aids the decision making process – the models of Plato and Freud – using the example of António Damásio's scientific research.

Lehrer explores the functions and production of Dopamine in the brain, how it interacts with ‘reward’, emotions and the Prediction Error Signal. He explores how Dopamine can dramatically affect our everyday life and behaviour.

Finally, he turns to Metacognition – thinking about thinking - and how knowledge and research can actually be applied to everyday life.

This video was kindly provided by The RSA