Are Humans Hardwired?
An article recently published in BRW by Kath Walters suggests that “business leaders are learning to rewire their brains, overcoming ineffective habits and enhancing productivity.” (Kath Walters, Mind Over Grey Matter, 2009, BRW) The article focuses on human behaviours, and how every time we do something new, our brain starts to rewire to adapt to that new behaviour.
Some of the characteristics that are recognised as “hardwired human behaviour” include:
- Emotions before reason – This relates to people trusting their emotional instincts before anything else.
- Loss Aversion – most humans seek to avoid loss, even when faced with potential for gain.
- Confidence before realism – business people are often using their confidence levels to deny what is realistic.
- First impressions – business people are quick to classify someone and often go with their ‘gut’ feeling instead of taking the time to truly analyse someone.
- Gossip – we seek information about the people we know and build alliances by sharing this information
It’s interesting when you think about the above characteristics. It is quite easy to relate them back to your everyday life and work situations and does make you think, maybe we are all hardwired to act a certain way.
Sophie
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