“The one who can master the emotions can master actions, and the one who masters actions is the master of all future realities.” Not sure what it means when I first read it, but the importance of mastering our emotions is self-explanatory. Emotion is the driving force behind a series of physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes, making people respond to stimulations, both intrinsic and extrinsic, in different patterns. The most recognizable example is that extroverted people are more likely to be social and express their emotions, while introverted people are more likely to be more socially withdrawn and conceal their emotions. So learning more about our emotions seems to be the key to reveal a whole new world about ourselves.
Unfortunately, we never have much of a shot with deciphering those emotional codes embedded in our languages, traditions and cultures. Some scholars in linguistics and psychology have gone so far to suggest that we’ve been wasting our time and energy on verbal communication since it makes up for only 7% of human communication. As much as we want to strip all emotions from our languages to maximize the efficiency of communication though, we simply can’t coz we don’t live like that; otherwise, what are the machines and robots for? The point is, besides listening for words, we have to listen to the dynamic emotions engulfed in our expressions — that’s a crucial advice I’d give my students when they’re tackling with an English listening test. And we do need more skill training in our capability to decode non-verbal communications like people’s tone of voice, pitch, micro expressions on the face and different gestures.
Analyzing and understanding the interdependent relationship between emotion and perception helps to shed light upon the puzzle. Our emotions are heavily affected by our perceptions and vice versa. Originally, we’re educated as a collective species on various emotions and feelings as we grow up in certain social context, mostly for the purpose of motivating adaptive behaviors that would have contributed to the passing on of genes through survival, reproduction, and kin selection. That explains why we find it easier to read the facial expressions of those who share the same cultural identity with us. Once our thinking pattern is fully shaped by culture and education, we start to perceive in different lights and react in different modes. People show a strong inclination in believing what they think they see with their own eyes, although sometimes deceptive and incomplete (see pic), and build their judgements on that, hence the nonstop arguments and disputes. Just like the typical paradox of “glass half full or half empty”, an optimist tends to see the positives with a smily face while a pessimist tends to see the negatives and ends up with a sad face.
Emotion, Perception & Action
It’ll be beneficial to all to modify our cognitive patterns to avoid seeing things from a singular, narrow perspective. Constantly shifting from one identity to another or changing from one angle to another contributes to a better and broader comprehension, which’s almost as close as we could possibly be to the Almighty. Instead of arguing with people, sometimes, helping them to see the whole picture or to get the whole story works better. If Tony Vallelonga in Green Book wasn’t given the opportunity to work and travel with Don Shirley, the African American classical and jazz pianist, there’s a high possibility that he’d stay a racist for his whole life. Allowing ourselves to feel compassion enables us to open up for such changes. And there comes the second tactic: altering the way we feel equals to altering the way we think.
Emotion, Perception & Action
Julia Galef claimed in her TED talk “Why You Think You’re Right — Even If You’re Wrong” that there are two distinctive characters that we impersonate, the soldier or the scout, when we are making decisions. Because of the differences in identity and priority, people show divergent choices corresponding to their role, one to attack and defend, the other to observe and learn. Those who are in the soldier mindset, or what scientists call “motivated reasoning”, interpret information in a way that’s shaped by their unconscious motivations, desires and fears, wanting certain people or ideas to win over the others; while those who are in the scout mindset, or unbiased reasoning, preserve the reality as honestly and accurately as they can even if it’s not pretty in spite of their own prejudices, biases and motivations, restoring authenticity and ensuring justice. Just think about it, the way we treat people and deal with stuff says it all, it’s ubiquitous. We’re highly motivated to find all the reasons and evidence to support and justify what we already agree or disagree with, say you won’t be surprised to find out negative feedback about someone you unfriended in social media but quite defensive when it bites at you, without noticing that we’re slipping into the hole of motivated reasoning. So what makes us to think so contradictorily separated from each other? The answer is emotional. Both mindsets are rooted in the identical emotions like defensiveness, however, scout-like people feel pleased and satisfied when they learn new information or an itch to solve a puzzle and intrigued when they encounter something that contradicts their expectations, which means that they prior truth and justice to other considerations and are willing to admit that they’re wrong about something with their self-worth intact, or without feeling infuriated, violated and defensive.
We don’t need, as individuals or as societies, more instructions in logic, rhetoric or probability, even though those are valuable, to think and reason objectively like the scouts. What we need most is the change the way we feel, feel proud instead of ashamed when we notice we might have been wrong about something, feel comfortable instead of embarrassed when we admit that we’ve made a mistake, feel intrigued instead of defensive when we learn something that challenges our beliefs. Only then will we be able to see the world as it really is. Only when will we become true masters of our own emotion that fuels more rational actions and decisions. Imagine a trip to an oversea country that we’ve never been to before. Unload all the misconceptions we’ve grown up with or heard of from various sources (legends and stories, news reports, books and blogs, comments and feedbacks) and leave them behind. Seize our curiosity and authenticity and take off. These will allow us to take the experience to its fullest and see the world as its truest.
Emotion, Perception & Action
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