Human Folly and the Fickle Brain

by Melissa Withers

The human brain is an amazing piece of work. Many of the things we value most—creativity, reason, problem solving—are derived from the dense orb of tissue tucked within our skulls. But however amazing and ‘genius’ the brain is, it is not without its foibles, says author Jonah Lehr, who has written extensively about our beloved (and imperfect) cerebral computer.

“For so long, neuroscience, as glorious as its discoveries are, has remained relatively abstract,” says Lehrer, whose most recent book, How We Decide, shot up the New York Times bestseller list soon after its release in 2009. “Neuroscience seems so far removed from everyday life, yet there are all these scientists coming up with interesting data that directly speaks to what it is like to make a decision in the supermarket or figure out which stocks to buy or sell.”

As a boy, Lehrer dreamed of being a scientist. “I thought I would be a scientist studying biology, working in a lab, wearing gloves and all the things that scientists do,” he explains. “Then I worked in a lab. As much as I loved the ideas of the lab and hanging out with scientists talking about synaptic proteins in the coffee room, I realized that I was terrible at it.”

Lehrer’s boss, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Eric Kandel, ribbed the hapless bench scientist, noting that Lehrer excelled at devising new and innovative ways to make experiments not work.

But ‘not being good’ at the manual labor of science did little to quench his thirst for science. He and Kandel remain great friends to this day, and Lehrer sees this foundational failure as one of the great waypoints of his career. It was after leaving the lab that he hit his stride as a science writer and discovered his talent for decoding the secret language of science.

“At the time I was really disappointed,” he says. “Switching gears to science writing was very much grappling with what I saw as my own failure to do what I thought I wanted to do. But you find success in failure and realize it’s an incredibly valuable lesson.”

Given his own round-about journey, it’s no surprise that Lehrer fell in love with the brain’s circuitous (and sometimes suspect) approach to making decisions.

“Decision making is an interesting paradigm to talk about the brain in the context of everyday life,” says Lehrer. “The purpose of the brain is to produce behavior and enable us to make decisions—that’s why we have these three pounds stuffed inside the skull. But the act of making decisions is also a really elegant way to ask very practical questions of the brain, which is a surprisingly hard thing to do.”

Anyone who has ever lived to regret a decision will not be shocked by Lehrer’s reporting on the brain’s foibles. What’s amazing are the connections he makes between current research and everyday decisions. In language that carefully co-mingles scientific terminology with layperson lingo, Lehrer offers readers an opportunity to understand the science behind our idiosyncrasies and uncover a new level of self-awareness about how our brains can mislead us.

“Much of what we are learning about the brain are these hardwired flaws—these little foibles and limitations—all the ways our brain is bounded as a deeply imperfect computer,” he notes. “It’s the Windows Vista of our anatomy.”

Take, for instance, “mental accounting,” a trick the brain plays where perceived value outweighs actual value. Lehrer uses the example of a stay in a fancy hotel to illustrate the phenomenon. “As tempted as I was to splurge on the $12.95 high-speed wireless package, I realized I would never pay that much if my hotel had cost me $60 a night,” he says. “But because of the luxury expense of the hotel and the trap of mental accounting, it seemed like a lesser charge.  This is just one very trite, banal way that knowing about the brain can help with everyday life.”

Lehrer believes that this self-awareness can make anyone a better thinker. “If we learn from the list of little mistakes we naturally make, you can avoid the mistakes that people have been making for the last 50,000 years. There is plenty of science out there demonstrating that very simple ideas have big consequences and can have big payouts.”