Scientific Definition
Emotional states distort cognition and decision-making.
Plain-English Definition
Emotional states distort cognition and decision-making.
Feynman Explanation
Don't make decisions when you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
Core Principle
Emotional states distort cognition and decision-making.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Emotional states distort cognition and decision-making.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
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Mood drives more decisions than leaders admit.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Don't make decisions when you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
Examples
- A deal is rejected because the negotiator is in a bad mood.
- Mood drives more decisions than leaders admit.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Delay consequential decisions during emotional spikes.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Delay consequential decisions during emotional spikes.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Predicting how we will feel in the future, usually inaccurately.
When the limbic system overrides higher cognition and behavior follows ancient circuits, not chosen values.
The capacity to recognize, understand, and manage emotions — your own and others'.
Negative emotions fade faster than positive ones.
Dacher Keltner's research: the emotion of encountering vastness reliably reduces self-focus and inflammation, and increases prosociality.
The drive to explore and understand for its own sake.
A strategy to influence behavior by amplifying fear and uncertainty.
Effects of an intervention spread to other areas beyond the intended target.
We attribute our own actions to situations but others' actions to their character.
The brain evolved to reason adaptively, not always truthfully, to reduce the cost of errors.
We solve problems by adding, even when subtracting would be better.
We favor people who are similar to us or who like us.