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Strike a balance between logic and emotion

Published: 18 Sep. 2024, 19:43

HWANG WON-MUK
The author is a professor at Texas A&M University.

I feel envy and respect as I watch ants moving and working steadily. There are times when we get tired of work, lose motivation or procrastinate. Practically, it could be more beneficial to live just like an ant. But why can’t we do that? There are things to be learned when you think about the difference between ants and humans.

Ants have clearly-divided roles. Worker ants can focus on work because they have dedicated missions and live a simple life. They work like well-programmed robots.

But human brains are developed to respond to multiple situations and make judgments. Humans may lose motivation and get distracted, lowering work efficiency, but motivation and will are mostly emotional issues. When deciding what action to take now, various emotions and feelings get involved. For instance, even someone who didn’t study psychology can assume that the interaction between motivation and boredom has a certain influence on behavior.

While ants’ behavioral judgments are controlled by a relatively simple program, human emotions are involved in linking various inputs to an action output. As the brain evolves, illogical emotion gets involved as a way to handle reasoning and logic. The amygdala, the part that controls emotions in the brain, is deeply engaged in memory, learning and decision-making. Dysfunction of the amygdala, which controls emotion, is closely connected to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Human beings are said to be imperfect because the interaction between emotions and logic is not simple. Sometimes, getting emotions involved in decision-making despite some losses may have been the best option for survival. Fortunately, humans have reason as well as emotions. Just as we develop our body through exercise, we can keep the balance between emotion and reasoning by striving to control the mind. Emotion is a powerful ability of the mind. When you analyze your emotions, it can help control your mind.