Emotional reasoning: emotions cloud thinking

In day to day, the emotions are part of our behavioral repertoire, guide us in our permanent search for satisfaction and well-being, and help us avoid harm and discomfort that can harm our physical and psychological health.

However, Such important benefits come with some side effects.. There are times when emotions play a trick on us, even when we are in full mental health.

A typical example of the latter is what in the field of psychology is known as emotional reasoning.

What is emotional reasoning?

Doing an emotional reasoning implies, as its name implies, reason based on how one feels.

Let's imagine that we have done poorly on a math test, or that we have been fired from work. In such circumstances, it is likely that we "feel" that we have failed, so if that is what we "feel", then it must be because we "are" failures. When we fall into the trap of emotional reasoning, we reach conclusions that seem to be true. but without following a sequence of logical reasoning, but paying attention only to how I feel.

Then, an excessive generalization is made from an anecdotal or very specific fact. That we have done poorly on a math test does not necessarily indicate that we have failed in life. And this is something that we constantly incur; We draw hasty conclusions, and generally sharp conclusions, without any valid and objective evidence to justify them.

In the same sense, if we feel alone, we can come to think that we deserve it, that we are not worthy of being loved, or that we have some defect that pushes people away. From there, to believing that we are going to be alone for life, there is a step.

Outward-focused emotional reasoning

Emotional reasoning has another outward-focused aspect. We also tend to judge the behaviors or emotional states of others according to how we feel. at that moment.

If we are angry because a superior denies us a raise, we are much more likely to attribute malice to the next-door neighbor than he is. listening to rock at full volume, or that we take as a personal injury the reckless maneuvers of the driver of the car in front of us in the highway.

when we feel irate, we see anger in others, and we are unable to realize that it is really us who are angry and project our emotions on others.

emotions are useful

All this should not lead us to think that emotions themselves are harmful to us. I like to think of the set of human emotions as a primitive system of intra and interpersonal communication.. This may sound overly sophisticated, but it's actually quite simple.

Let's go in parts, let's see word by word.

I say primitive system because Emotions, as we know them, within the framework of the evolution of the human species, are much older than language. When we were little more than treetop primates jumping from branch to branch and completely incapable of articulating any sound not even remotely similar to what we know today as the human word, we already had the possibility, however, of expressing a wide range of emotions.

The "emotional communication system"

And this brings us to the second concept: communication system. When someone smiles at us and his face lights up when he sees us, he is telling us, before he articulates any words, that he is happy with our presence. Either that he likes us in some way, or that we don't have to fear him, since he has no hostile intentions towards us. These interpretations are valid, of course, depending on the context.

If, at the other end, someone stares at us, wrinkles their nose, raising their upper lip and exposing their teeth, they are letting us know, without expressing it verbally, that he despises us, detests us, or for some reason feels sufficiently motivated to make us damage. In fact, our fellow evolutionists, the apes, display their fangs as a form of threat to others. Flaunting the attacking arsenal is often an effective intimidation item, or a way to dissuade the other from their intention to attack us.

Therefore it is possible to say that the main function of emotions is to communicate states, attitudes and behavioral predispositionsboth to ourselves and to others.

Emotions and how we express them

It is not necessary for our partner to tell us if she liked or not the anniversary gift that we bought her; before he utters a word we already know it from the expression on his face. In the same way, we know if our boss is going to give us a raise or fire us when he sends for us to talk privately and we enter his office.

When we see someone with face furrowed by sadness, without ever asking him anything, we are certain that he is going through a bad time, that there is something that is making him suffer. That arouses our interest, our compassion... her emotion acts as a facilitator that pushes us to act, to do something to help him.

Cooperation between human beings in the face of adversity, or in pursuit of the achievement of a goal common, is one of the main components that allowed our evolution and progress as a species.

The primitive and interpersonal nature of emotions does not occur only at the phylogenetic level (Darwinian evolution from one species to another), but also at the ontogenetic level, that is, during the individual development of the person. To see this, you only have to observe how a baby behaves before the first year of life, before she can articulate single words.

From the very birth the different cries of the baby communicate to the adult that they are hungry, that he is colicky, or upset because he wants his diapers changed. Every mother more or less adept at decoding emotions learns to recognize the subtle nuances of her son's whimpering and what they indicate during the first months of her life.

Some modest conclusions

Emotional reasoning is a mental con, a delusion, an illusion created by a demonic magician that appears as a result of some difficulty in correctly interpreting and managing one's emotions, and that hidden in anonymity can completely direct the life of the affected person, making them believe things that are not true, such as For example, that you are worthless as a person, that the world is a dangerous place, and even that there is no hope that you can get out of it. state.

That is to say, emotional reasoning generates illusions based on emotion.

But emotions, in and of themselves, are neither harmful nor a mistake of nature. In general terms, all of them, the ones that are pleasant and especially the unpleasant ones, They are very beneficial for humans, since they play a fundamental role for survival.. They help us build relationships, strengthen ties, and keep us away from dangers.