HOW DOES THE BRAIN INFLUENCE OUR DECISIONS?

How the brain shapes your decision?

🧠 How Does the Brain Influence Our Decisions?

Have you ever found yourself making a decision “without thinking” — and then wondering why? The truth is, much of our decision-making is guided by automatic, emotional, and often unconscious brain processes.

Decision-making is the process of evaluating different alternatives and choosing the most appropriate option. It involves identifying rewarding stimuli that encourage approach and aversive stimuli that encourage avoidance.

In this post, we’ll explore how the brain influences our everyday decisions — from grocery shopping to life-changing choices — with practical examples, studies, and links to deepen your understanding.

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⚖️ 1. Emotion or Reason? The Brain in Conflict

Clash between the limbic system and the pre-frontal cortex

Our brain has different systems working together — and sometimes in conflict — when making decisions:

• Limbic system (amygdala, nucleus accumbens, etc.): impulsive, emotional, fast.

• Prefrontal cortex: rational, analytical, responsible for weighing consequences.

According to Daniel Kahneman, these systems can be thought of as:

• System 1: the limbic system above. It’s fast, automatic, impulsive, and driven by past experiences. It handles routine tasks and reacts emotionally and unconsciously.

• System 2: the prefrontal cortex above. It’s slower, more deliberate, analytical, and rational. It handles complex problem-solving and makes conscious, well-considered decisions.

  
  

📌 Practical example: You see a flash sale online. The amygdala screams: “Buy it now!” The prefrontal cortex tries to remember your credit card limit.

🔗 Related reading: Amygdala hijack and impulsive decisions

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💰 2. Financial Decisions: The Brain Hates to Lose

The brain hates loses and attaches to the first information

Studies show we experience loss aversion — we feel more pain from losing R$100 than pleasure from gaining the same amount. This activates areas like the insula and anterior cingulate cortex.

Another key bias is anchoring, a System 1 process. We fixate on a specific detail or number as a reference point, which then distorts our judgment.

📌 Example: You hold onto a falling stock because you don’t want to “realize” the loss — your brain is sabotaging your rational thinking.

📌 Example: “Black Friday deal” — a product that normally costs R$200 is marked as R$500 with a 50% discount. The anchor distorts your perception of value.

🔗 Classic study: Kahneman & Tversky on loss aversion

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🧠 3. Implicit Processing

Representation of how the decision are influenced without the use of consciousness

These are the fast, automatic processes that influence our behavior and decisions without our awareness:

• Priming effect: Exposure to one stimulus influences a later response. Example: stereotypes or unconscious prejudice.

• Confirmation bias: Tendency to seek and interpret information that confirms preexisting beliefs. Example: politics, religion, public opinion.

• Status quo bias: Preference for maintaining things as they are, avoiding change. Example: staying in an unsatisfying job or clinging to superstitions.

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🛍️ 4. The Power of Triggers and Context

How the environment and marketing induce our decisions

Environments and emotional triggers activate automatic decisions:

• Dopamine: Increases with unexpected rewards or the promise of pleasure. The more dopamine released, the harder it is to reverse or rethink a decision.

Controlled dopamine release activates the mesocorticolimbic pathway (ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex), which helps regulate behavior based on long-term outcomes — involving rational decision-making by the prefrontal cortex.

Uncontrolled or excessive dopamine release sends information directly to the amygdala, bypassing other regions — triggering impulsive emotional reactions. This is known as an amygdala hijack and can lead to compulsive behaviors like over-shopping, hypochondria, overeating, addiction, or even corruption.

📌 Example: Overreacting during a sale event or an argument, leading to physical aggression.

• Neuromarketing uses neuroscience to influence buying behavior. It aims to understand how the brain and body respond to marketing stimuli to sell more effectively.

  
  

Ethical concerns now arise: Is it right to use neuroscience to influence — or manipulate — consumer behavior?

📌 Example: A red “buy now” button triggers urgency and emotion before you even think.🔗 Reading: “How Brands Seduce the Brain” (Harvard Business Review)

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🍽️ 5. Hunger, Sleep, and Hormones: Biological Decisions

How the biological factors affect the judgment

The body’s ability to function depends on proper nutrition, sleep rhythms, hormonal balance, and environmental factors like stress and exercise.

• Hunger: The hormone ghrelin reduces prefrontal cortex activity and increases impulsivity.

• Sleep deprivation: Leads to cognitive impairment, poor judgment, hallucinations, slower response time, and hormonal imbalance.

• Hormonal imbalance: Affects mood, mental health, reasoning ability, and decision-making.

📌 Example: Shopping while hungry leads to a cart full of junk food.🔗 Study: “Hunger increases delay discounting”

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💡 6. Can We Improve Our Decisions?

Practical representation of how activate the rational system

Yes! With self-awareness and emotional regulation, we can engage the rational part of the brain more often:

• Practice mindfulness or meditation

• Get quality sleep

• Pause before making decisions

• Reframe choices from another perspective

Also, consider the four stages of the decision-making process:

1. Problem/Need Recognition: Identifying a need, desire, or issue to be solved.

2. Information Search: Gathering details — and being influenced in the process.

3. Evaluation of Alternatives: Deciding if, what, how, and where to make the purchase.

4. Purchase: Acting on the decision to solve the initial need or problem.

🔗 TED Talk: “How to make better decisions” – Samantha Agoos

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🧠 Conclusion

Summary of the high importance of understand the brain under decision

Decision-making involves self-control, choice, and free will. Yet, neuroscience shows that unconscious processes often precede conscious ones. Our minds generate the feeling of “I decided,” but the action is usually already in motion.

Our decisions are more brain-driven than we realize. Understanding these mechanisms helps us become more conscious, ethical, and effective — in life, work, and finances.

🧠 Most of the time, we’re not thinking — we’re reacting.

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