15 March 2009

Listening to the BBC, I heard an interesting analogy: the brain is like a man riding on an elephant, where the man is the rational part of the brain and the elephant is the emotional part.  When emotion takes over control is ceded to the elephant.

The subject of the analogy was the current economic situation, and suggests why people seem to so often buy high and sell low - they make important investment decisions while under the sway of emotion, particularly fear, but also excitement, something one should resist doing.

But the same applies to many situations: disciplining children, marriage, making a major purchase, changing jobs, retiring, divorcing, voting; name almost anything.

It is something we might all want to think about and heed.  We could stand with a great deal more rationality.