The Many Factors of Decision Making

Nicholas Fasanello

Mr. Crosson
Senior Seminar
December 19, 2014

Introduction
Connections from the past, present, and even the future render each move that is
made in this life. As people progress through life, it is those experiences and their negative
or positive associations that will become relevant in situations unbeknownst to the person
experiencing that. The brain itself will flood with all it knows and pick and choose what is
important or not to put the person in present time. At that time, all of the factors of decision
making become relevant and noteworthy in the journey of rapid thought. Scenarios such as
the way your brain ignores the sunglasses on your head, the preference for Coke vs Pepsi,
or the fear you have when the lights suddenly become darker will be understood when one
analyzes the journey of decisions. From hundreds of origins, decisions made deliberately
and even unconsciously require the brain itself to naturally put your perspective in the safe
and present time.
The unconscious decisions we make happen so naturally that no one thinks to
question it. The growing need to understand this realm of psychology can lead to great
outcomes with deep understanding. It is already understood that our unconscious brain runs
95-99% of our daily functions, leaving 5-1% up to consciousness (Its Now A Proven Fact).
With that said, shouldnt we understand that part of the brain more? Although one may not
think so, that part of the brain essentially runs your conscious mind. If it were not for all of
the actions and reactions taking place within the first stage of decision-making, you cant
truly arrive at a conscious decision. Branding, marketing, and advertising are tailored
around your unconscious mind to truly understand products and consumers. To make a
brand live in a consumers head, the consumer must have an emotional impact associated
with that item which determines the memorability of that experience (Heaton). With

knowledge of that, they can virtually predict the decision a consumer will make given
different variables to choose from. Although sought over as unobtainable and intangible, by
priming, understanding, and associating, we can make that seemingly inaccessible realm of
brainwork a controlled matter.
The goal of this study is to understand the journey of decision making. While
refining our understanding of the role our unconscious plays in decision making, people
learn what they are truly capable of. By understanding the unconscious and the process of
rapid decision making, you can improve an aspect of your life you never thought was
possible. When valuing efficiency, it becomes evident that decisions made quickly could be
as efficient as decisions made rapidly (Gladwell). Our snap judgments and first
impressions can be educated and controlled. [and] the task of making sense of ourselves
and our behavior requires that we acknowledge there can be as much value in the blink of
an eye as in months of analysis, (Gladwell). By drawing attention to the unconscious
world, we can educate ourselves on our own fate. When we know that there is nothing that
marks your daily existence that doesnt have a neural code, we are faced with the need to
further understand the way we go about making decisions and how our brain works
(Szegedy-Maszak). University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Paul Whelan highlights the
power of our unconscious when he stated, Life would be chaos if everything were on the
forefront of our consciousness, (Szegedy-Maszak). With that said, welcome to an
understanding of the more primitive form of thought.
The true importance of this study is to allow those wishing to further their mental
capacity the opportunity to understand how that could happen. Each day, people say they
wish to have a higher access to their own brain, but dont know how. Imagine having

access to 100% of your brain? is a common question. But in perspective, imagine having
50% access to your brain? Or even 10% access. Thatd be an unnatural jump as it is. You
may not become the character from Limitless but at the end of this study, we will know
how to control and prime a portion of our thinking that is technically not accessible or,
easily stated, unconscious.
The research question for this study will be: What factors go into human decision
making?
Results
The vast and seemingly endless journey of decision making involves several steps,
processes, and references to both internal and external experiences past and present. They
come in numerous forms and have many different levels of understanding. Both conscious
and unconscious decisions are crucial to the everyday process of living. Working together,
hand in hand, these two different minds are crucial to living.
Each day humans make decisions such as what to eat, who to talk to about a certain
problem, and even what car to spend tens of thousands of dollars on. All of these decisions
are life-changing in a way and thus, are referred to as our conscious decisions. The
complexity of this psychological state has not always been a part of our lives and is
continuing to be more and more profound (Schachner). Conscious decisions require a
certain level of awareness and in turn, require us to make a conclusion about what the best
choice would be (Conscious Decision Making). In a very telling statement by Robin
Wright, the true power of the conscious mind in reference to its main concept of
rationalizing scenarios is explained. The causal role of conscious thought has been vastly

overrated, and what we are in fact is not rational creatures, but rationalizing creatures,
(Heaton). In essence, it seems as though the conscious decisions are typically the more
important decisions made day-to-day (Conscious Decision Making).
The conscious, creative, thinking mind, although profoundly understood to control
our lives, plays a suggestively minor role in daily life. Consciousness identifies ones sense
of self; something theologians, anthropologist, psychologists, philosophers, and many more
have been longing to do for centuries (Slywester). As we understand that around 1-5% of
our daily functions are actually conscious, it is evident that what runs in our conscious mind
has to be relevant, and important. Cognitive, or conscious, thought varies from person to
person but it is said that typically, it occupies only 1% of the daily minds functions. For a
more mentally aware person, that can shoot up to maybe even 5%. The thinking mind
only processes 4 to 5 units of information at most to be able to exert energy on what is most
relevant and important to the current situation. This portion of the brain is also connected
with awareness. This connects us to our identity, spiritual sense, and the creative mind. To
put this psychological mind into perspective, the conscious mind processes on average 40
bits of information per second (Lipton).
On the other hand, we have a mind processor, an internal computer, which works at
speeds of up to 40 million bits per second. Working much faster, this more powerful part of
our mind is the ever so important unconscious mind. Nearly all of our emotions, decisions,
and behaviors are processed through this portion of our mind, far beyond consciousness.
(Lipton). This is where the remaining 95-99% of mental consciousness resides. This mental
state acts as a tape player, only playing passed experiences back and over again. When the
unconscious fails, it isnt the fault of the unconscious, or the tape player, but rather the

programs within that tape player, the experiences one has. Nothing new is processed in this
part of mental being. Experiences are played over and are brought up by memory when a
situation similar to the one at hand prevails (The Unconscious Mind Unveiled).
This essentially giant computer keeps us human. Processing information day in and
day out, this keeps us on track. Imagine having to think of each and every decision made.
Which shoe to tie first? How many ways can you escape death when a truck is cruising
towards you, head on? Timothy D. Wilson, author of the thrilling psychology book,
Strangers to Ourselves, put it this way:
The mind operates most efficiently by relegating a good deal of high-level,
sophisticated thinking to the unconscious, just as a modern jetliner is able to
fly on autopilot with little or no input from the human, conscious pilot. The
adaptive unconscious does an excellent job of sizing up the world, warning
people of danger, setting goals, and initiating action in a sophisticated and
efficient manner. (Gladwell)
The unconscious mind allows us to judge people (snap judgment), make rapid
decisions (rapid cognition), and so much more. The decision to invite a coworker over for a
dinner party is a conscious decision because of the fact that one thought about it with great
detail however the spontaneous fight that may erupt with that same co-worker is
unconscious. Differentiating when to use each is the work of our minds. Particular to each
and every scenario we face, we as humans will toggle back and forth between conscious
and unconscious thinking, naturally and effortlessly (Gladwell).

The questioning of our conscious and unconscious minds came to us during a

slightly rebellious time in human history. The spiritual world told society that the invisible
forces that move and shape our world are the only true forces of this life. Science came into
existence with vows made to not infringe on the spiritual, invisible world but when facts
became evident, science became powerful. When Isaac Newton was able to predict the
movement of planets by seeing obvious physical features, scientists were led to think that
when obvious features can show proof, there is no need to believe in the invisible spirits
(Lipton). This gave people a new look on science.
Years later, however in 1925 with the coming of Quantum Physics, science was
brought back to the origins of the power of spirits. This physics emphasized the fact that the
universe is made of energy, not matter. When asked what that energy is, they replied it is a
field. The definition of a field is as follows: invisible moving forces that influence the
physical world. This evidently is strikingly similar to the definition of spiritual. When
Quantum Physics acknowledged this, they reverted back to the days of spiritual reality,
aligning the two once again. This gave way to a new scientific era known as the Behaviorist
Era (Lipton). With that, a unified wish to seek a greater understanding of human nature
came, with which psychology was a major focal point.
From 1919 to 1948, science was engulfed in this new age of the Behaviorist Era
with origins dating back to the spiritual days. John Watson who lived from 1878 to 1958
developed the idea of psychological behaviorism that suggested that psychology should
study the behavior of certain organisms. Rather the study of the mind and its internal
processes, people should be studying the behaviors of organisms because it may give truth
to variable situations in which did not take place but could have taken place. Refuting this,

however, arose the beliefs of philosophical behaviorism. This ideas focus was more so on
the mind and mental terms. Unlike the Cartesian theory of mind which stated that the mind
is an off limits, private aspect of human nature that requires introspect or privilege to
understand, philosophical behaviorism opened the doors to potential understanding.
Philosophical behaviorism believed in just the opposite of Cartesian theory: there is nothing
necessarily hidden about the mind, it is not private, the substance making it up isnt a new,
special, and unknown thing, and there is no required privilege to understand it
(Behaviorism).
To differentiate psychological behaviorism from philosophical behaviorism even
further, philosophers specified that rather focusing on the intangible mind itself, one must
focus on the way in which people represent their minds. This is known as the linguistic
turn and takes the focus off of understanding the mind as an object in this world
(Behaviorism). Focusing more heavily on cultural sources, spoken word, and more, this
type of understanding strayed from tangible, scientific sources thus proving the true
abstract nature of philosophy- especially philosophy specific to the unconscious mind
(Canning).
One of the most famous names in the realm of psychology is Sigmund Freud.
Living from 1856 to 1939, his theories relevant to psychology both conscious and
unconscious were new and also disturbing at times. Though most of his justifiably warped
views on psychology stem from a troubling and traumatic past, he deemed the unconscious
mind as a solely dark and disgusting place. According to Freud, the information our
unconscious minds held were simply too disturbing and perverted to be conscious
(Thornton).

In his time, treatment of the neurotic was simply brushed off and deemed as,
casually inexplicable. Freud took it upon himself to change that and when he did; he
pioneered the journey into understanding the unconscious. Seeking answers, he dug to find
explanations in the unconscious minds of his subjects. Pinning the unconscious brain as the
cause, he ultimately concluded that trauma suppressed in ones unconscious brain causes
them to act out. This mental state, which he contests we have absolutely no control of,
govern each decision and action we as humans make time and time again. Specific to his
point of view, unconsciousness is not only something out of consciousness but rather one
that cannot be brought to our forefront of consciousness without specific and deliberate
protraction from psychoanalysis (Thornton). Explaining the idea of our unconscious mind
as the bottom of the iceberg, he understood well the true power of our unconscious.
Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind, and a primary
assumption of Freudian theory is that the unconscious mind governs behavior to a greater
degree than people suspect. Indeed, the goal of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious
conscious, (McLeod). Although reasonable and psychologically true at times, Freuds dark
and often times inappropriate studies tied to consciousness and unconsciousness ignited the
spark of a new scientific era.
To combat the negativity and pessimism of both, psychoanalysis that was practiced
by Freud to understand the underlying motives of decisions and behaviors, and behaviorism
that analyzed simply the conditioning processes that caused decisions to happen,
humanistic psychology arose. Developed around the late 1950s and officiated in 1961, this
new realm of psychology focused on the potential that people have within them. They
stressed the true importance of self-actualization and growth. Different from many other
schools of psychology, humanistic psychology gave higher credit to the individual at hand

in the act of controlling their own mind. Also, this school gave credit to the environment
around people. Rather than focusing solely on internal thoughts and desires, the opening to
the environmental factors gave an inside to the external factors of decision-making that
grew shortly after this psychological school was announced (Cherry). Understanding
humanistic psychology gives way to great new possibilities in the world. Maureen O'Hara,
former president of the Association of Humanistic Psychology, made this clear in her
following statement:
As the world's people demand freedom and self-determination, it is urgent
that we learn how diverse communities of empowered individuals, with
freedom to construct their own stories and identities, might live together in
mutual peace. Perhaps it is not a vain hope that is life in such communities
might lead to the advance in human consciousness beyond anything we have
yet experienced. (Cherry)
All of the abstract, theoretical, what ifs of psychology have to reside within
something. While researching psychology, it is common to see phrases such as this is not
completely understood, psychologists never determined why, and this is not
understood by the medical community therefore there is no agreed explanation for the
phenomenon. Often times, it is common to see medical professionals who are not involved
in neurology to have unified comments such as this one, Psychology is filled with it may
be this and it could be that and thats why I was never able to fully enjoy it, (Fasanello).
The human body, the interior of all thought, plays a huge role in housing and
assisting in the processes of decision making. The brain is a widely interconnected system

that takes input from the external influences of the world but also the internal complexities
of human nature. To keep the brain on track at all times, our internal immune system,
essentially, collaborates with the brain and all other internal mechanisms to respond to all
of the very, very tiny, and invisible internal challenges that may face it. When failure
among the collaboration of both the brain and the immune system arises, illness is
prominent. To make the idea of the two collaborating together to keep the body and brain
working efficiently more clear, think of the two as a school and a guidance counselor.
Guidance counselors once were responsible for monitoring the school, looking for such
potential problems, and dismissing them or distracting them from their original motives.
Their job almost mimicked that of immune cells in our widely interconnected immune
system (Slywester).
The nervous system of our interconnected bodies is, ultimately, epitomizing the
concept of the human body being a hugely collaborative entity. Categorizing the brain,
spinal cord, and several neuronal networks together, the nervous system sends, receives,
interprets, and processes information coming from various parts of our body. Responding to
external factors and managing the internal functions of our vast bodies, they run smoothly
and naturally. The spinal cord, brain, and neural networks are made of grey matter that
essentially is a complex mix of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil, glial cells and capillaries
(Grey Matter). The term nervous system, however, can be broken into two smaller, more
specialized categories. There is the central nervous system that acts as a processing center
and the peripheral nervous system. Specific to the central nervous system is the spinal cord
and the brain, both protected by protected layers known as the meninges (Bailey). There are
three membranes that protect the very delicate brain and spinal cord. The outermost layer is

known as the dura matter. This extremely dense protector is rich in blood vessels and
nerves. The middle layer of the three-membrane protection system the brain and spinal cord
employs is the pia mater in which is translucent and accurate in its adherence to the brain
and spinal cords surface. Lastly, there is a layer known as the arachnoid. Similar to the pia
mater, the arachnoid and the pia mater are often times collectively referred to as the
leptomeninges (Carpenter).
Our brain, which is part the vast central nervous system, is essential. It acts as the
control center of the body, similar to how a nucleus houses the control center of a cell. It
can be divided into three parts known as the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain all of which
house specific portions of the brain responsible for various functions deliberate and
autonomic (Bailey).
The forebrain, for starters, is more commonly associated with our conscious,
thinking brain. Here, functions like thinking, perceiving, producing, receiving, motor
functions, and also understanding language reside. But if we break into this part of the
brain, the forebrain, even deeper, we will find two new divisions. All within the forebrain,
we have diencephalon and the telencephalon (Bailey).
The widely complex telencephalon and diencephalon house the thalamus and the
hypothalamus (Bailey). Associated with the orbitofrontal cortex, known commonly as the
ventromedial prefrontal cortex, is the part of the brain most heavily associated with
decision making. Commonly used to test decision making relevant to risk based scenarios,
the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, when damaged, greatly affects an individuals ability to
make decisions with unsure, or ambiguous outcomes (Fellows). The limbic system drives

its output to arrive in this region of the brain that explains its active role in decision making.
The limbic system is a network of complex structures that are primarily responsible for
emotions, feelings, and memories (Reed). The emotion driven limbic system is located on
both sides of the thalamus (Boeree). The hypothalamus, different from the thalamus signallike-function that works with all of our sensory systems, works to maintain homeostasis,
bodily function, body temperature, hunger, and other very autonomic activities almost in
the same way our medulla oblongata regulates breathing and such (Bailey).
The telencephalon is the huge region of the brain in which attributes a great number
of functions. Complexes like the amygdala, the cerebral cortices, hippocampal structures,
ventral pallidums, and limbic lobes, are housed here and serve essential functions
(Telencephalon).
Each brain has the amygdala which has a unique job. The amygdala is critical for
stimulus-reinforcement associations that can be both punishment or reward based and the
processing of emotional expressions. Its function is powerful in the collaborative work it
has with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in itself. Once it recalls the stimulusreinforcement associations, it transmits that information forward into the ventromedial
prefrontal cortex which concludes in a decision being made. The ventromedial prefrontal
cortex is critical for the representation of reinforcement expectancies, and decision making.
Because of its representation, it is recognized as the decision that was made (Blair).
The amygdala does much more. Facial recognition is partly picked up here, but
more so in terms of expression. Fearful faces, for example, are a bit more ambiguous than
typical angry faces. An angry face shows a direct message from an individual to advise the

observer to stop a particular behavior. This acts almost as a trigger to response reversal
(Blair).
The last facet of the telencephalon to discuss is the cerebrum and the cerebral
cortices, which of course, work hand in hand with one another. The cerebrum is the largest
single part of the brain (Bailey). Its two large masses are known as the cerebral
hemispheres that symmetrically mirror one another within the brain. Connected by nerve
cells, this part of the brain is simply responsible for many higher brain functions like
sensory impulses, initiation of muscle movements, and the storage and processing of
information. Through reasoning, this part of the brain also determines personal intellect and
personality (Cerebrum).
Within the cranium is the, big wrinkly hemispheric thing that we most often
associate with the brain which houses your sense of self (Heaton). The neocortex is that
hemispheric thing which is multilayered, extremely complex, and extremely common
amongst all mammals. The complexity of its wrinkles and curves is purposeful to increase
its overall surface area and size which accounts for 76% of the total brains composition and
it is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor
commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and in humans, language (Neocortex).
The naming of such brain regions has meaning to it as well. Take the neocortex, for
example. Neo is a root word alluding to something new or recent (Neo-). This, essentially,
then suggests that the neocortex is a part of the brain that is rather new. The neocortex,
making up 76% of the brain composition, is essentially everything visible when looking at
the brain. Whether you look at the brain from the top, bottom, or side, you see the

intertwined, curved gray mass known as the neocortex. Each kink and curve gives room for
greater mental capacity. This part of the brain gives us the divinity of higher thought, which
differentiates us to be humans (Amthor). From mammal to mammal, the thickness and
makeup of the neocortex is consistent. What differentiates us, however, is not the makeup
of that neocortex, but rather, the structure of it. A rat, which has similar brain content as
humans, has little to no grooves in the brain. References to the brains of cats can also be
pertinent. Physically, few more grooves present themselves. More grooves than a rat yet
less than a human, they remain slightly more mentally specialized than rats but far less
developed than humans. The monkey, which many associate as the humans closest mental
being, has a slightly larger brain than the cat and more grooves in the neocortex than the
cat. This shows, consistent with the pattern we are seeing, that monkeys have higher mental
capacity than rats and cats but less than humans. The next mental being following the
monkey, of course, is the human being. We have the brains with the most grooves in it to
make way for our specialized, higher thinking we evolved through the years
(Telencephalon).
The distinguishing aspect of mammals from all other animals in the world is granted
due to the neocortex in which we exclusively have. No other animal is equipped with such.
This doesnt mean that other animals cannot function though. Before mammals, animals
could still move and act all while acknowledging the environment around them but what
they couldnt do was access a higher thinking. The ability to access consciousness and
develop the world made us distinct. The neocortex gave way for the incredible to happenlike making tools and developing highly complicated languages (Amthor).

Over the past several hundred million years, evolution has been common not only
for our species but for thousands of species across the board. Adding adaptations,
innovations, and more to life, they typically strive to better the overall being of one specie
at hand. Within the last 7 million years, we saw the human brain nearly triple in size from
what we can speculate. Most of that change is said to take place within the last 2 million
years, a comparative short period of time for Earths history (Schachner).
It is hard to track the evolution of the brain but it is not impossible. Comparing
fossils from different species of different time periods, we can use several methods of
predicting the evolutionary patterns of the human brain. Because we have no ancient brains
to weigh, we have to measure evolutionary change in a different way. Rather comparing
brains, which we cannot physically do, we can compare the skulls from ancient times that
have been preserved by fossilization. It appears as though our brains were approximately
the same size as modern day apes for the first two thirds of our existence. The Lucy fossil
which is famous for its primitive human being state, suggests that the brain at that time was
approximately 400 and 550 milliliters. Today, chimpanzee skulls are approximately 400 to
500 milliliters. With that being said, comparative sizes are roughly the same. Gorillas today
have skull capacities of around 500-700 milliliters which is strikingly more than that of a
primitive human (Schachner).
During the first two thirds of human nature, the brain started to show minor, yet
crucial changes. These little changes began the first steps of differentiating our brain as the
most complex one known to date. Over time, the size of the brain began to increase slightly
which gave rise to the famous neocortex in which was talked about extensively. Its

primitive function was now moved away from visual processing to higher level thinking
which we adapted over years and years of primitive lifestyles (Schachner).
Following the first two thirds of human nature where little, subtle changes took
place that gave way for our signature as human beings came the more active latter third of
humanity. Approximately 1.9 million years ago was when we first marked the appearance
of the homo habilis specie. Different from the fossils of the famous Lucy body, the homo
habilis was the first of the homo genus, of which modern day humans are. With the homo
habilis, we saw a heightened growth in the language connected frontal lobe. Following
homo habilis came the homo erectus around 1.8 million years ago. This specie houses a
brain nearly 600 milliliters in size which was a drastic jump from the previous cranial sizes
of homo habilis and the Lucy body (Schachner).
The evolution of human brains continued still. Around 500,000 years ago cranial
sizes reached nearly 1,000 milliliters. This size, nearly 400 milliliters more superior to the
homo erectus, kept growing. Modern day humans house a cranium that has sizes from
1,200 milliliters and beyond. Our brains accordingly adapted to fit the size. With this, our
linguistic complexity, dietary needs, and technological prowess grew. As the brain
continues to grow through evolution, we will see areas of cognitive function heighten. In
years to come, it is only evident to say our abilities in depth of planning, communication,
and problem solving will become more specialized (Schachner).
Consistent throughout science, however, irony prevails. Within the last 10,000 years
of human history cranial volumes decreased. It is thought that this trend is a response to the
limited nutritional availability that was once an issue that faced society. Within the last 100

years, however, with spikes in industries and agriculture, the cranial volumes rebounded
and once again set forth for an upward track. As childhood nutrition gained greater
attention and overall disease slumped down, the rebound gave way for another trend in
growing brain sizes (Schachner).
Mental evolution has graced different species very differently. As evident,
crocodiles have faced mental evolution in a way that greatly enhanced their life. Their
adaptation was in their olfactory bulbs which gives them a heightened sense of smell. This
will enhance their ease of living greatly. Relevant to that, humans have also developed an
enhanced sense of vision through growth in their brain. The early, early brains in which
share nearly the same origin as our highly specialized and conscious brains are now found
amongst beings on the bottom of the tree of life. Insects, worms, and snails are graced
with this basic brain which is majorly a congregation of nerve cells known as ganglia. Fish
and amphibians have more defined brains, however, small in relation to the size of their
bodies. Next, we see reptiles and bird brains which are more highly complicated and
reserve a great deal of power to sense relevant to smell and vision (Brain Evolution).
Contrary to what all of the prior research has suggested, the size of our brains does
not exactly correlate to the complexity of it. The brain of a blue whale, for example, is
nearly 6 kilograms on average. The humans brain, in contrast is on average, 1.4 kilograms
in weight. A North American ruby-throated hummingbird has a brain that weighs less than
one gram but could function almost similarly to the 6 kilogram brain inside of a blue whale.
Both can sing and communicate, both can raise young, and both can migrate. In actuality,
they both mate, but the miniscule brain of the hummingbird creates an elaborate mating

call/dance that is arguably more complex than that of a blue whale (Brain Evolution). So,
what is it that determines the overall strength in power and influence of an animals brain?
When looking at the sizes of animals brains, we must look comparatively to their
overall body sizes as well. Although the blue whale has an enormous 6 kilogram brain, it
really only makes up 0.01% of its overall body. That is, in numbers, 60,000 kilograms to 6
kilograms. A lion, in comparison has on average a 200 kilogram body size. Within that 200
kilogram, however is a 200 gram brain. When the math is figured in, that is only 0.1% of its
overall size. Lions thus are not highly specialized in terms of mental intelligence. The
human, however, on average is around 70 kilograms in overall weight. Of those 70
kilograms, the brain makes up around 1.3 kilograms. After math, that is nearly 1.9% of the
bodys weight. The closest contender is the rat with a 3 gram brain in a 200 gram body
which leads to 1.5% brain- now you see why theyre common test animals (Brain
Evolution).
What else contributes to intelligence in the brain? The intricately wound up coils
and curves of the neocortex which gives way for the brains high level thinking also
determines such intelligence. Another forever-evolving facet of psychology, the brain is not
born as intricate as we see it now. For the 6 months before the second trimester, our brains
are born flat and smooth, similar to a fully developed rats brain. That type of brain is not
highly functional or intelligent. By 26 weeks, though, that brain has begun evolving its
shape and pattern. Looking more similar to a humans brain than a rats brain, it has the
many convoluted curves of intelligence we associate with the brain (Brain Evolution).

As the brain grows, it doesnt necessarily expand but rather it adds layers to it. The
innermost layer of the brain is the R-complex. Commonly referred to as the reptilian brain
because it resembles that of a typical reptiles fully developed brain, this extension of the
brain stem is the innermost layer which means it is also where our most primitive and
basic functions are housed. This part oversees all activities that are critical to life like
automatic muscle control, breathing, standing, sleeping and awaking, heartbeat,
temperature regulation, and more. Exhibiting survivalist importance, this crucial part of the
brain was developed first (Sweeney).
The next brain in the Russian Doll known as our head is the limbic system. As
mentioned before, this is the control center of all emotion. Consisting of the amygdala,
hypothalamus, and the hippocampus, it is a near counterpart to the forebrains diencephalon
and telencephalon. Found in all mammals and humans, it is absent in most all reptiles.
Because of that, it also distinguishes our brains as higher level processors. (Sweeney).
Neuroscientist Paul MacLean conducted a number of experiments in the late 1960s
that furthered our understanding of the levels of the brain. In 1967, when he was able to
suggest that the brain functions on three levels, he conducted specific experiments targeting
one or more parts of the brain. In regards to the limbic system, he set up an experiment
where he removed the limbic systems structures from the heads of numerous mammals.
Once done, he saw that they all exhibited unified behavior: a lack of bond between mother
and offspring and a decrease in playful activity. This, he concluded, reverted the animals
back to reptiles, focusing a higher activity on the R-complex. When someone expresses
love, it is the work of the limbic system. When someone is flushed with anger that is also
the work of the limbic system (Sweeney). But there is still another level to mention.

The outermost level of the Russian Doll that is our head is the cerebral cortex.
Prevalent among many mammals and all humans, this is the most highly specialized portion
of the brain, which suggests that it was last in the evolutionary process (other than the
simple fact that it is the outermost layer of the brain). Within the cerebral cortex, is the
expansive neocortex which is rich in its functions. In regard to the limbic system, if
someone chooses to simply ignore the kiss theyre given or the slap theyre feeling, the
responsibility of action is no longer on the limbic system, but rather the cerebral cortex.
The feeling of emotion is solely limbic while the determination of ignoring or accepting is
conscious, and cerebral. This brain is functional when using language, speech and writing.
It developed humanity, in a way, giving us the ability to speak and communicate with
hundreds of highly developed languages. This also handles problem solving, memory and
insight to future planning. Unlike the R-complex which controls involuntary, automatic
movements, this part of the brain allows us to make voluntary movements with muscles,
joints, and more. Because of the development through evolution of this brain we also have
the ability to empathize with people- the ability to see the world through other peoples
eyes. MacLean stated eloquently, It is this new development that makes possible the
insight required to plan for the needs of others as well as the self In creating for the first
time a creature with a concern for all living things, nature accomplished a 180-degree
turnabout from what had previously been a reptile-eat-reptile and dog-eat-dog world,
(Sweeney).
Throughout history, mental evolution has proven to have taken place. It is only
obvious to then suggest that it will continue to happen in the future as well. Charles

Darwin, a pioneer to the field of evolutionary science, stated that, Evolution suggests that
creation is not complete; hence the ability to evolve, (Lipton).
We always live in the past because what we see is always delayed by at least a third
of a second. We do not see this delay because we believe we experience things
immediately, which is untrue. In a scientific way, the way in which a decision is made can
be seen as this: whenever we see something, light rays pass the pupils and hit the retina of
our eyes. These images are then encrypted into millions and millions of nerves. They are
then sent to the thalamus which is essentially, the gatekeeper of our consciousness.
Following that, the nerves are sent to the visual cortex (which allows us to pick it up and
see the image) and simultaneously the amygdala which is the housing complex of our
memories and past experiences. When that happens, we jolt to action without even knowing
(Pure Science Specials).
Aside from neuroanatomy, there are several internal factors of decision making that
have great influence on the actions one has each and every day. Certain underlying,
preexisting conditions lead to decisions we are and are not aware of. Every day, people use
their minds with and without knowledge to perform tasks such as breathing, reading,
standing, walking, judging, buying, and so much more. Some more deliberate than others,
of course, but all are works of hundreds of processes internal and also external.
Emotions, in all their connotations, have a very important role in the process of
decision making, conscious and unconscious. The field, in which emotion covers, however,
is very vast and encompasses many states of mental and physical being. By definition, an
emotion is any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear,

etc., and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or

respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking (Emotion). Often times they
will affect the outcome of ones decision without the individual being aware. It all refers
back to the minds ability to pick, choose, and weed out experiences both past and present.
Feelings are exceptionally important to humanity. Emerging when we become
conscious of our unconscious emotional arousal, feelings allow us to go beyond innate
programed behaviors. Because of that we are able to rationalize and design solutions to
contemporary challenges that were not developed through evolutionary progression
(Slywester).
Emotions serve as an internal thermostat in many ways. This gives the brain the
opportunity to analyze current situations and determine whether or not they are crucial or
important. Because of the great energy the brain craves to function, it is important that the
conscious mind picks and chooses very carefully what to allocate time and effort on.
Naturally, the brain tells us to stay the course, to remain comfortable, rather expend energy
and effort on things that currently are not problematic. A trick of the mind comes in though
with emotions. Emotion has the power to trick us into recognizing the subtle body language
of gradually encroaching problems until it suddenly is a menacing problem. Emotions are
principally unconscious and are very innate and also powerful (Slywester).
The personal being of emotions makes determining such facts rather difficult in
many cases. A lot of times, emotions strike people differently. Because of that, it is difficult
to set concrete this is why this happens ruling surrounding decision making. Lack of selfconfidence is an issue that is faced by a lot of people when making major decisions career

based, life based, and more. One of the more powerful drivers behind decision making is
the realm of fear and anxiety. Although anxiety can work wonders to keep someone on their
toes and conscious of their surroundings, too much anxiety can paralyze the mind. Fear and
anxiety are powerful in decision making (Schroeder).
Emotional impact played a significant role in the specific experiment regarding an
individuals decision to drink an alcoholic beverage versus that drinks cost. For this study,
24 men aged 21-34 who were known to be heavy drinkers were put to test. When
participants originally decided to have a drink, several areas of the cerebral cortex were in
function. Following that, when the decision to have a drink was greatly impacted by the
sheer price of the drink, different parts of the brain were activated. This suggested an
obvious highlight of the interplay between deliberation and reward value. It became evident
that specific parts of the cerebral cortex were sensitive to escalating prices of drinks.
Through fMRI scanning, the study concluded where in the brain the theoretical intersection
of rational and irrational brain systems was. When tension was prevalent, the most brain
activity was prevalent (MacKillop).
We see obvious interplay of both emotion and decision making in everyday
activities. From risk-based situations to easy, rapid cognition, the role it plays is extremely
driving. We can speculate that there are three concrete processes likely to occur with
exposure to a stimulus event (Shiv). Before getting into that, though, it is necessary to break
down a stimulus event. By definition, a stimulus is an agent, action, or condition that elicits
or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response (Stimulus). With that
said, a stimulus event should refer to a very deliberately planned scenario in which ones
decision making process is analyzed and assessed through dedicated data.

The first of the three known processes regarding a stimulus event is the relevance of
information. All information related to the stimulus event is subject to basic and automatic
analysis. The primitive instinct of analyzing all given information happens very quickly and
may give rise to lower-order reactions to come. Secondly, the analyzing of information is
moved on to a higher-order of cognitive processing. With that, the outcome of the cognitive
processing then analyzes a second set of information. For example, with anger, the second
stage of cognitive processing will refer to the social rules regarding appropriateness of the
anger, perhaps. Lastly, a much slower part graces the three stage process. At this final stage,
the affective significance of the prior, lower-order process is looked at. Because of the fact
that this stage refers to a more deliberate process, it takes significantly longer for the
outcome reactions to appear (Shiv).
This process can be easily applied when referring to an example of determining the
origin of sound. Although it may seem like you can just tell where a sound is coming from
when you hear it, the process of arriving at that conclusion is the work of both conscious
and unconscious collaboration within the mind and body. To be able to determine where a
sound comes from, your brain conducts countless mathematical comparisons on a complex
level. Comparing sounds familiar to us and running through the three processes of stimulus
reactions, the mathematic complex runs back and forth to determine which ear is hearing
what. The mathematical analysis of the sound you hear is happening completely
unconsciously. The collaboration comes in with the conscious mind when you arrive at the
knowledge of where the sound is coming from (Conscious Decision Making).
Internally, our natural control over decision making can or cannot be strong.
Stanford Professor Baba Shiv designed a very elegant test in which he tested the control

people have over their decision making given a certain scenario. In this test, which he calls
Cake or Fruit, he had test subjects choose between an appealing chocolate cake and a
seemingly less attractive (by societal standards) bowl of fruit. To make this test more
meaningful, he also required the test subjects to try and remember one of two sequences: a
long numerical sequence or a very short numerical sequence. Those who had the much
easier task of remembering one or two numbers chose the cake 42% of the time at the end
of the test. With that said the majority of the test subjects chose the bowl of fruit! On the
other hand, those who were responsible for remembering the longer sequence of numbers
chose the cake 63% of the time. This left to an obvious conclusion that our natural desire
for sugar and fat serves as an almost inevitable mental interference. Our rational decision
making process is apparently very, very fragile and holds sway only in near ideal scenarios.
Our lives, however, are almost never ideal. So many variables are thrown into the daily
playing field of life. This test led to the conclusion that our unconscious is actually driving
the motor that is our brain most times (Heaton).
A breakthrough study on self-control was conducted at the Bing Nursery School
near Stanford University in San Francisco. Called the Marshmallow Test, its ideal goal
was to analyze the self-control of toddlers in sticky situations. Developed around the
1970s, this still serves as one of the most important tests of self-control and motivation.
The kids were given a seemingly simple task: they were to be in a room by themselves with
two plates in front of them. One of those plates held one marshmallow while another held
two marshmallows. The kids were then asked whether they prefer one or two
marshmallows by an instructor to which they all said two, of course. The instructor of the
test was to leave the room to conduct work. He told each of the kids that he can be called

back into the room by the ring of a bell under one circumstance: if they rung the bell, they
could only have one marshmallow rather the two they could have if they let him come back
on his own (Pure Science Specials).
When the kids were on their own, their brains switched to an automatic mode
unconsciously. To resists temptation on eating the marshmallows without permission (or
ringing the bell) they all developed their own strategies on how to remain strong. Within
minutes, several of the kids began ringing the bell out of pure defeat. Upon arrival, some
kids said, I decided, I actually only want one while essentially surrendering. What this
study is showing is that one must change the environment; conform to it. But one cannot
always change the world around you so what you are led to do is change your perception of
it- divert your attention. The students who hung on the longest diverted their attention by
focusing on things like the chairs, windows, and much more (Pure Science Specials).
Internally, our mind lets us believe what is in its best interest. By using data,
experiences, and more it attempts to make right of the world around us. Cognitive structure
makes mindsets of the world. That perception makes ideas of the world and thats
essentially how we see the world. That is the magic of cognitive structure. What we know
is not finite, John Robinson, principal of Discovery High School stated on the topic of
worldly knowledge that, Truth is tentative, (Robinson). Science proves that our
unconscious mind has the ability to process nearly 11 million units of information rather the
4-5 our conscious mind can. With that said, the brain has to use his magical method of
ignoring the irrelevant (Pure Science Specials).

New York City, at first, seems exhausting when one approaches it. With motion in
each and every corner you see, the mind is constantly aware of whats going on around you.
The more often you venture into these places; however, you become more at ease. This
happens because the brain shifts to autopilot, ignoring the irrelevant and focusing on the
important (Pure Science Specials).
Proof of this idea is apparent in the following study psychologist Daniel Simons
thought of. A video clip was played to test subjects where two basketball teams simply
passed the ball pack and fourth to each other. One team was dressed in a white uniform as
the other was simply dressed in black. The task was to find out how many times the white
team had the ball. The curve ball was thrown into the study when there was an obvious
gorilla intruding on the team in the background as they passed the ball back and forth to
one another. What the study concluded though was that a majority of the viewers were
completely oblivious to the gorilla in the background. Focusing primarily on the ball was
the task of the assignment thus, the brain itself ignored all of the irrelevant factors- the
gorilla (Pure Science Specials). If one was able to determine that the ball was passed 9
times, there was success in completing the task.
Hundreds of factors go into decision making on an internal level from neuroanatomy to the digging up of experiences of the past. We see that when a decision is made,
various regions of the brain are used relevant to the specific decision at hand and all of the
variables of it.

External factors greatly influence decision making as well. From environmental

factors to here-say from close friends, those variables that could be very subtle and minor
can play a great role in the influence of decision making.
Often times, decisions are driven by what the outside factors have put with them.
Our perception of life, in many cases, derives from conformity. So then, how do the outside
factors truly affect our decisions being made? Some may say the true power in getting
people to follow ones decision is in the power of a Tipping Point. What a Tipping Point
essentially is is the best way to understand trends and societal epidemics. Ultimately trends
and epidemics are simply unified decisions amongst humanity (Gladwell).
Imagine 1994-1995 New York, New York. The Hush Puppies shoe brand
responsible for making lightweight, suede, leather, classic American shoes was at an alltime low selling less than 30,000 shoes per year (thats a small number in corporate terms).
The company Wolverine who oversaw their production was days away from pulling the
shoes when Hush Puppies executives Owen Baxter and Geoffrey Lewis approached the one
person they needed to talk to- a New York stylist. That stylist happily informed the two that
the shoes were quickly becoming a huge hit amongst bohemian communities and club
scenes in and around New York City (Gladwell).
Fall of 1995 approached with great success for the shoe company. Calls were
coming left and right from designers like Anna Sui, John Bartlett, Isaac Mizrahi, and even
Joel Fitzgerald asking to use the shoes in fashion spreads and lay outs across the world.
Pee-Wee Herman even came to the company asking for several pairs. According to
executives from the company, this rush was solely word-of-mouth. By the end of 1995,

around 430,000 shoes were sold, an exponential increase from the previous years sales.
The years following saw increases so significant, production was at an all-time high. By
1996, the executives of the company were accepting awards in the presence of Calvin Klein
and Donna Karen at the Council of Fashion Designers in New Yorks Lincoln Center gala
dinner. The award was for an achievement that the executives of Hush Puppies proudly
admit they had absolutely nothing to do with. A handful of kids from Soho and the East
Village were solely responsible for the exponential growth in that single company- word of
mouth (Gladwell).
How was that so powerful? Those handfuls of people, those outliers, were
deliberately wearing the shoes to make a statement. Seemingly no one was wearing those
shoes at the time. They were essentially a catalyst to the companys growth. Those few
were in the right place at the right time to expose them to the right people. Within time, the
shoes were being exhibited by designers in what the fashionably savvy call: Haute Couture.
An incidental touch led to an epidemic trend in societal America (Gladwell). The world
wondered, How could a $30 pair of shoes worn by outliers soon become a fad across the
nation?
As insignificant as the understory may seem, it is a clear textbook example of
contagious behavior. Those kids did not hire ad campaigners to advertise the Hush Puppies
but when they deliberately wore them to clubs, to schools, to cafes, they were exposing the
fashion to a greater population, who then caught on. At most, 100 kids were wearing the
shoes, but their little change in the world made a huge difference. The hurry in which these
changes happened, too, was crucial to the overall effect. If we saw numbers raise that much

over a span of 10 years, it soon would become insignificant but that isnt what happened.
We saw the rise in two years, if not two months.
Contagiousness among societies can help to easily explain how the flu is
reoccurring annually and how measles spread from classroom to classroom within days.
The sheer truth about the seismic effect of change that can occur within a short period of
time gives way for other factors to be possible (Gladwell).
Unconscious detection of things causes contagiousness to happen automatically.
Contagiousness is an unexpected property of things, and that is crucial to remember when
attempting to analyze epidemics and trends (Gladwell). Example: Day after day, alone on a
hill, the man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still, but nobody wants to know himthey can see that he's just a fool, and he never gives an answer but the fool on the hill, sees
the sun going down, and the eyes in his head, see the world, spinning round (McCartney).
The lyrics above are written and sung by Paul McCartney for the Beatles in 1967. It was
popularized shortly after by Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 in 1968 becoming a worldwide
hit, yet again (The Fool on the Hill). If youre familiar with the tune of the song in Beatles
form or Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 samba form, you may have read it in tune. Now, read it
again and attempt to note a difference.
Day after day, alone on *yawn* a hill, the man with the foolish grin is
keeping perfectly still, but nobody *yawn* wants to know him- they can see
that he's just a fool, and he never *yawn, yawn, yawn* gives an answer but
the fool on the hill, sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his *yawn*
head, see the world, spinning round *yawn.* (McCartney)

Chances are, while reading the above lyrics the reader may or may not have
yawned. There is no guarantee that one will yawn while reading it but typically, this is what
will happen. If the reader is yawning as a result of reading this paper in a public place,
chances are that a good proportion of the people around the reader will also yawn as well.
Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act and glorifies the truth of contagiousness in society.
Even if someone plays an audiotape of yawning to a group of blind people, chances are that
a good proportion of them will consequently yawn as well (Gladwell).
Following contagiousness in these primary external factors of decision making is
the power of little cause to consequently lead to a big effect. Naturally, humans are wired to
make socialized approximations between causes and effect. Because of this, we know of
the need to speak passionately when we decide to tell someone we love them. We know to
speak softly and sympathetically when breaking hard news to someone. We know to speak
with hostility in times of anger. This is because we are essentially trained to understand that
what goes into things must have a direct correlation to its desired outcome. It gives us the
knowledge of what level of intensity we must instill in language, for example (Gladwell).
Epidemics are mathematically measured by geometric progression. Geometric
progression is a sequence, such as the numbers 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, in which each term is
multiplied by the same factor in order to obtain the following term (Yahoo Dictionary Web
Search). If one is given a piece of paper and then told to fold that paper as many times as
they could, they would do so. Chances are they may fold the paper about 7 times. If one is
told to do this without paper, in their mental imagination, one could theoretically say it
would fold to the sun, when asked how many times they think it would fold. Fold it
again, I ask, and they may say that that fold brought it to the moon and back.

Geometric progression accurately explains health epidemics, in many cases. When

viruses spread through populations, they double and double and double and double so many
times that it plagues a community. At the end of the spread of the epidemic, it has
figuratively reached the moon and back. With that, we need to accept that small events
can truly have great outcomes in terms of numbers very, very quickly (Gladwell).
What these three factors ultimately are getting at is that innately, humans are
gradualists. With that, we automatically believe things have to happen in steps, but what is
true is that radical change can happen quickly and can be very, very powerful (Gladwell).
Unconscious decisions fascinate the minds of those wishing to crack into it. The
unconscious mind has no ability to move outside of its fixed programs. The tape player, we
call our unconscious, reacts automatically to scenarios based on its previous interactions
and experiences. This works without knowledge or awareness of the conscious mind. Even
when we think we know whats going on, when we think we are thinking, our unconscious
is making those decisions for us (Its Now a Proven Fact).
Lawrence Williams of the University of Colorado tapped into and analyzed several
unconscious minds in an abstract way. In what we will call the Cup o Joe test, Lawrence
Williams had several test subjects participate. People were unobtrusively given coffee prior
to being asked to write their thoughts about John Doe (default, basic name) of whom they
were given a picture of. One test subject was handed hot coffee whereas the other control
group was given cold coffee. In every case, those holding the warm, hot coffee had nothing
but positive comments about the John Doe whereas the cold coffee holders had the opposite

thoughts about him. Both sets of people were chosen at random, the only difference
between the two was temperature (Heaton).
Unconsciously, the limbic system is reacting with the temperature and tapping into
our experiences with each. The limbic system is reacting with the physical sensation of the
coffee being warm and associating it with warmth of the soul. The brain says, Warmth is
good. Warmth is nice. I want to be around warm people. Warm people can be trusted more
than cold people. Thus, the unified decision of the hot coffee being associated with nice
comments about John prevails. Next, the limbic system refers to the neocortex and then
asks questions like why which lead to extensive internal rationalization. The rationalizing
brain then makes up every reason why the warm John is good and why the cold John is bad
(Heaton).
The arousal of why is something exceptionally powerful in the vast understanding
of decision making specific to consumerism. Emotion plays a hugely important role in
decision making. Although emotional activation doesnt control or solve a particular
challenge, emotion does a great job of offering a reasoned bias towards the direction of a
particular response (Slywester). Our limbic system, the balance of emotion, determines the
memorability of something through the amygdala. The memorability of a particular event,
item, etc. is determined by the emotional impact that it leaves on the individual (Heaton).
Brands have to work this part of the brain in their consumers to gain and keep them. A
brand will live in the consumers brain if it does a very good job of activating the
amygdala- being highly memorable. The company must inspire the consumer to care
(Heaton).

One of the most notable historic tests of the power of branding was focused around
the ever so vicious rival between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. For what seems like the entirety of
beverage history, Coke has seemingly always dominated the soda industry. Selling millions
upon millions of products annually, it seemed there was no downfall in sight. As of 1972,
statistics proved that nearly 18% of all cola drinkers preferred Coke to the 4% that
exclusively preferred Pepsi. By the 1980s, however, this changed. The Coca-Cola
Company became increasingly nervous about their success in the future and the reason was
unclear for a long time (Gladwell).
Early 1980s approached and statistics changed drastically. Cokes 18% dropped to
12% whereas the rival, Pepsi, rose to 11%. To combat the harshly true statistics- that Pepsi
was becoming more favorable over Coke- the company immediately attempted to dig into
this problem. Blind taste tests were conducted time and time again and the evidence was as
expected, people preferred the citrusy flavor of Pepsi to Cokes ancient, traditionally secret,
raisin-like vanilla taste. Thus, the decision makers at Coca-Cola began to work on the taste
of the product (Gladwell).
Blind taste tests became to be heavily focused upon. In that first sip that one takes
of a drink, they create their own opinion, which is typically very, very strong. These
opinions are then valued and analyzed by tastemakers of the major company. The new and
improved product, known as New Coke quickly became successful. By almost matching
the flavor of Pepsi, the taste tests put Coke back on an even playing field with Pepsi. CocaCola was ecstatic at what they thought made them the most inferior product in the game
(Gladwell).

Despite the success of the taste tests, where testers were given only a taste of a
product, the product quickly failed. Coke drinkers were enraged at the fact that the
company changed the taste, and overall, were unsatisfied. The taste tests clearly proved the
superiority in taste of Coke to Pepsi, so where is the fault?
The results of blind taste tests, known as central location tests (CLT), only show the
results of a sip. When one takes a sip of two or three or four products, they may find one sip
to be significantly better. Thats self-evident. What this CLT failed to do was put the tester
in their natural environment. One person may love the taste of a sip but loathe the taste of
an entire can. The artificial environment which a CLT takes place can drastically alter ones
mind, thus effecting their decision. Carol Dollard, whom once was the new-product
developer for Pepsi stated, If you only test in a sip test, consumers will like the sweeter
product. But when they have to drink a whole bottle or can [in their own environment], the
sweetness can get really overpowering or cloying, (Gladwell).
What Pepsi did was develop a product that outshines its competitors in CLTs. At
first, the tester will note the burst of citrus flavor. The tester then will find that burst
refreshing, sweet, and favorable. What the CLT failed to do was offer the tester an entire
can to try. This, arguably, may have been done in order to mask the evident truth that
Pepsis citrusy burst dies off quickly into the can. Thus, the product outshined in all sip
tests. Initially, New Coke outshined Pepsi because they developed a new flavor solely
based off of the blind CLTs. Once the product came to be in the hands of consumers in a
quantity much larger than a sip, which its future was wrongly based upon, the drinkers were
displeased to say the least (Gladwell).

Blind taste tests, although powerful for sips dont always tell the truth as to how
successful a product will be in the real world. In this case- it was horribly wrong. In the real
world, no one drinks Coke blind (other than the blind). When referring to taste and
branding, unconscious mechanisms play a huge role. When thinking of Coca-Cola, we
recall the can, the commercials, the infamously red logos, and all else associated with Coke
personally and corporately (Gladwell). This recalls the importance of companies inspiring
consumers to care- the why of consumerism. Darrel Rhea is a high ranking principal at
Louis Cheskin Associates, which is a company focused on consumer centric methods. The
idea of this company is to understand the consumer and their reasoning. Rhea stated on the
topic of Cokes decision to create a new product,
The mistake Coca-Cola made was in attributing their loss in share to Pepsi
entirely to the product. But what counts an awful lot in colas is brand
imagery, and they lost sight of that. All their decisions were focused on
changing the product itself, while Pepsi was focusing on youth and making
Michael Jackson their spokesman and doing a lot of good branding things.
Sure, people like a sweeter product in a sip test, but people dont make their
product decisions on sip tests. Cokes problem is that the guys in the white
lab coats took over. (Gladwell)
The Baylor College of Medicine also cracked into the brains effect on branding
relevant to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. 67 people were chosen to be test constants where they
were subject to blind taste tests. Consistent with the prior study, the vast majority preferred
Pepsi to Coke. The same test constants were then told to try Coke versus Pepsi- not blind.
In this conduction, every 3 out of 4 people preferred Coke. By using brain-imaging

technology, researchers scanned their test constants brains while viewing each label. Pepsi,
although technically better tasting during blind sip tests, activated the brains feel good
centers virtually zero times. Coca-Cola, on the contrary, did just the opposite. Brain scans
showed that the Coke label caused wild activity in the parts of the brain relevant for
memory, like the hippocampus. Not only was the hippocampus activated but also the
portions of our brain solely responsible for higher-level function like the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex that is significantly expedient during executive functions like control of
behavior (Szegedy-Maszak). All of this is unconscious.
Understanding the minds of consumers is something that is growing in the field of
psychology as time progresses. Language is limited and can only speak to a certain extent.
Imagery is much more important and has proved to reach deeper into the unconscious mass
that drives our lives each day.
Gerald Zaltman, a Harvard Business graduate, looks at consumerism with a
neurologists point of view. As a founding partner in Olson Zaltman Associates, he provides
guidance and advice to businesses that seek to further understand the minds of consumers.
In attempts to make consumer understanding more tangible, he produced the Zaltman
Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) under US Patent Number 5,436,830. What this is
is a technique used to provoke interconnected neurological and philosophical constructs
that allude to thought and behavior, consequently. By engaging access to the 95% of our
brain that remains unconscious, we can understand the motives behind decisions. In order
to fully do that, one must face a metaphor, in essence, that associates with a particular
product, feeling, place, or memory (Szegedy-Maszak).

On the website for Olson Zaltman Associates, the typical ZMET experience is as
follows:
Participants are asked to find pictures that represent their thoughts and
feelings about a given topic. Each step in the ZMET process helps the
interviewee look at their images from a different perspective, gaining deeper
insights along the way. They quickly get beyond the normal clichs to reveal
the subconscious meaning behind their images. (ZMET Process)
Architectural firm Astorino teamed with Fathom, a design team, to construct a new
childrens hospital. With hopes of developing the hospital in the most meaningful and
easeful way, they sought out to the consulting firm Olson and Zaltman Associates. Through
the ZMET Process, children, parents, staff, and more were interviewed for hours.
Recollections mention one child who brought to the table a picture of a blue-eyed pug with
a particularly mournful grin. When asked why he chose the picture, he said, Because hes
kind of sad, and thats the way I feel when Im in the ICU or just cant get out of my room.
Christine Astorino Del Sole from the design company, Fathom, stated, The main metaphor
was transformation, and the supporting metaphors were control, connection, and energy.
After an excruciating yet meaningful process, the hospital opened its doors with butterflies
all around, the basic symbol for utter transformation (Szegedy-Maszak).
The unconscious mind, although scattered and seemingly intangible until one
understands and researches the truth and evidence of it, has a method to its madness. Snap
judgments are made each day, left and right, regarding thousands of scenarios. When
someone sees another person for the first time, against their will, regardless of whether or

not they wish to accept the truth, they pass judgment on the appearance, mannerisms, and
basic characteristics of that person.
Those ever so meaningful snap judgments are driven by what psychologists,
philosophers, and neurologists refer to as thin slicing. In the less than two seconds it takes
your mind to form a judgment off of the little information it has about a particular person,
place, or thing, a great amount analyzing takes place within the brain. Snap judgments are
made when the unconscious brain uses all it knows about a given thing to arrive at a
conclusion, in the blink of an eye. Thin slicing can be surprisingly accurate or far from the
truth which is all a matter of an individuals personal experiences.
To understand the power of thin slicing, one must see its application in the real
world. In September of 1983, an art collector approached the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los
Angeles with what would be his claim to wealth. With him, he brought an extremely rare,
well preserved 7 foot tall, marble statue thought to be a product of 6th century BC. This
work of art is known as the kouro by art aficionados and was up for grabs, at the tune of
$10,000,000 (Gladwell).
With hesitation, the Getty Museum decided to take the piece, on loan. During this
time, extensive investigations regarding the statues credibility and authenticity prevailed. At
first, the statue seemed to be an exact bloodline consistent with other kouros. Nothing was
questionable in obvious observations. Despite the heave of credible documentation that
came alongside the statue, the museum furthered their investigation. Stanley Margolis, a
geologist at the University of California, removed a core of the statue 2 cm long and 1 inch
in diameter to see deep beneath the surface. What she found through the use of electron

microscopes, electron microprobes, mass spectrometers, X-ray diffractions, and X-ray

fluorescents was that this statue was made of dolomite marble from an ancient Thasos
quarry. The surface was covered in a thin layer of calcite which takes thousands of years to
transform into from dolomite. With that, the statue was obviously extremely old, thus,
appeared not to be a modern day fake. Consequently, the Getty Museum finalized the deal
and purchased the $10,000,000 kouro (Gladwell).
The Getty Museum thought they had struck gold with their new acquisition and
opened the doors of the museum to the public following the release of a front page story
about the new acquisition, the kouro. This is when the problem arose. Federico Zeri, an art
historian of Italian descent, saw the kouro and was in complete shock. This shock, however,
was not out of amazement but rather disgust. He found himself deeply analyzing the finger
nails, at a loss for words. Following this, the kouro was Evelyn Harrisons to critique.
Being one of the most prominent Greek sculpture experts, her opinion was valuable. Upon
the first glance, she also was at a loss for words. Harrison recalls, He just swished a cloth
off of the top of it and said, Well, it isnt ours yet, but it will be in a couple of weeks. And
I said, Im sorry to hear that. Although she was at a loss for words and did not quite
know why, an instinctual haunch led her to believe something was off, or amiss. Thomas
Hoving whom once was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was
next to observe the kouro. His technique when analyzing art for the first time is to blurt out
the first word he thinks while viewing it and for this case, that word was fresh, which is
not the appropriate word to describe a statue retrieved from the ground thought to be 2,000
years old. Instantly, Hoving told the Getty Museum curator that showed him the piece not
to pay for it, and if he did, try to get your money back, (Gladwell).

What power did these three experts have that no one else had when regarding the
authenticity of the kouros, one might ask. Intuitive repulsion hit each of these experienced
individuals in a wave as soon as they saw the work. The Getty Museum spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars checking the authenticity of the kouros in labs only to be misled
likewise to the way Coke failed when, the guys in the white lab coats took over,
(Gladwell).
The cores told truth: the medium was authentic and appropriately aged. The
documents seemed legitimate: Swiss physician Lauffenberger sounded respectable. The
documentation that was overlooked, however, was fake as well. For instance, one letter
dated in 1955 mentioned a bank account that, in reality, wasnt opened until 1963. One of
the letters dated in 1952 featured a stamp that wasnt produced until well into the 1970sthus another setback to the documentations credibility. These tests of the authenticity of the
documents did not take place until well after the purchase though, a bit too late. The kouro
seemed authentic, only to those inexperienced. What the three experts had was experience.
Their power of thin slicing the statue was extremely telling and exceptionally powerful
(Gladwell).
Conscious decisions happen after what seems like deliberate and well-planned
thought. It is the outcome of our internal brain arriving at the best conclusion after
analyzing all of what could be. Organized like a court trial, sights, sounds, feelings, and
other sensory evidence is analyzed and registered in the brains multiple sensory circuits.
The brain has cells within it that serve, essentially, as a jury. Those cells that compile and
weigh each piece of evidence accumulate in such a way that when it reaches a critical
threshold, the decision is made (BrainFacts.Org).

On a conscious level, the average American makes approximately 70 major

decisions per day (Iyengar). Those decisions are influenced by the world around you and
can go from smooth sailing to difficult choosing. Deliberate and well planned, they are a
reflection of yourself and your past experiences. One of the greatest influences known to
have an effect on decision making is the input of trends, patterns and epidemics.
The term maven refers to an expert of something (maven).Those mavens are
extremely important because they are the people who spread opinions. These are the people
whose opinions are valued highly- whom you ask advice for when purchasing a new car or
even a new razor. Mavens are the people who the 1-800 numbers on a box of soap is for,
because their opinions are the ones that will grace different people (Gladwell).
In 1990, Lexus introduced the LS400 model to the flagship, luxury vehicle segment.
This was a risk because its competition was in the German rivals, BMW, Mercedes, and
Audi. Being a Japanese car, the competition was unpromising. In order to secure its
clientele, and promote future sales, they had to do whatever it took to keep the owners.
Anyone who made the decision to buy this brand new luxury car when they could have
chosen the promising competitors that have been around for nearly 30 years already was in
fact a maven. Car aficionados, who knew what was good, and what was bad, were driving
these cars. With that, the owners opinions mattered greatly (Gladwell).
Within the first year of production, the Lexus LS400 model was recalled for a very
minor problem. This, ironically, was just what the company needed. Rather sending mass
informative letters to each owner, Lexus took a more hands-on approach. The company
called each of the several thousand owners, informed them of the recall, and made the

solution as convenient as possible. If the owners lived more than 100 miles from a dealer,
the company sent a mechanic to their home. In one case, a mechanic was flown from Los
Angeles, California to Anchorage, Alaska to correct the manufacturers recall. When the cars
were picked up from the dealer, all of them were cleaned and filled with a tank of gas. This
is superior customer service (Gladwell).
The significance of this is that when the company shined such care for their
customers, they were dealing with influential people- the mavens of automotive knowledge.
These are the people who know cars, talk about cars, and promote cars. When they were
treated with such respect as they were from Lexus, their view of the company became
extremely positive. They consequently would then promote the vehicle. Experiences like
this are crucial to the overall decision making that takes place amongst people when
searching, specifically for this case, for a new car.
The norm of society tells humanity that decisions made deliberately over a long
period of time are consequently better. This, however, is not necessarily true. When
choosing, and making decisions, all of the factors of the scenario play a rule in influencing
the desired outcome. Choice becomes drastically disturbed when we have the effects of
choice overload, ease of choosing, and the like in the play (Iyengar).
The choice overload problem is something that faces consumers on a regular basis.
Particularly in America, when choice is luxury, the overload is common. Near Stanford
University there is a grocery store named Draegers. This ultra-luxury store offers hundreds
of varieties of the average product. Amongst the selections, one could find 250 types of
mustard, 12 variations of bottled water, nearly 500 different fruits and vegetables, and over

75 kinds of olive oil. With so much to choose, the true question was whether or not the
great number of options was beneficial (Iyengar).
To test the idea, Sheena Iyengar, author of The Art of Choosing set up a test (Sheena
Iyengar). Her and her team set up a table where they tested jams. The store offered at that
time 348 types of jams. For the study, they had two sets. One table sampled 6 jams whereas
the other sampled 24 jams. First, the study analyzed which table caused more people to
stop. As expected, 64% of people stopped at the table of 24 jams rather 40% who stopped at
the table of 6 jams. Next, the test analyzed how likely people were to buy the jam when
given choice. This gave way for the opposite statistics to prevail. As for the table of 24,
only 3% actually bought a jar. The table of 6, however, sold jars to 30% of people. Thus,
the choice overload problem causes people to, choose not to choose even when it goes
against our personal interests, said Sheena Iyengar (Iyengar).
Another factor of decision making on a conscious level comes with the ease of
decision making. When you have an overwhelming amount of choice, the most effective
solution is to cut. This, expectedly, frightens businesses. Cut translates to less shelf time in
the eyes of corporations, which seems to be bad. In reality, however, we see that when you
are willing to cut, there is an increase of sales, lowering of costs, and improvement of
choosing experience. On average, a grocery store offers 45,000 products, a Walmart offers
150,000 products, and an Aldis offers 1,400 products. In comparison, Aldis is the 9th
largest retailer in the world. Thus, less is more, less is good, and less is easy (Iyengar).
The first solution to the choice overload problem is to cut. Another solution is
categorization. Although one is a facet of the other, people can handle more categories than

they can choices. Iyengar conducted an experiment regarding categorization that showed
the true power of it. Wegmans grocery store is primarily a New York company. The
magazine section of these stores range anywhere from 331 to 664 different kinds of
magazines. This is a clear environment for choice overload. Iyengar took two different
subjects and made divisions. First, she used nearly 600 magazines and divided them into 10
categories. Then, she took roughly 400 magazines and divided them into 20 categories.
Unconsciously, with 20 categories, the average person believes they were given more
choice- more options to choose from- when in reality, the division of 20 included 200 less
options. The categories tell the individual how to tell them apart, thus making the 20
categories seem more extensive (Iyengar).
In reality, humans can handle an absurd amount of choices, if they are in an easy
manner. They key is to make choosing easier. Another solution to the choice overload
problem comes in with the gradual increase in complexity. Iyengar conducted an
experiment focusing around the build your own car portion of an Audi website. When you
have the opportunity to make your own car, you are faced with upwards to 60 decisions,
which can be overwhelming for a complex and consequential scenario. Everything from car
color to engine specification is up for grabs when customizing (Iyengar).
For the experiment, two groups of car buyers were broken up. One group was
instructed to carry out the process in a manner that swayed from high choice, 56 colors, to
low choice, 4 engines. The other group worked in the opposite manner: 4 engines, to 56
colors choices. The main thing Iyengar analyzed during this was the level of engagement
the different test groups radiated. When the choices became overwhelming, the test subjects
were instructed to press a default button. What the evidence showed was that the group that

worked from high choice to low choice, pressed default significantly more than the group
that worked from low to high (Iyengar). All of these make up the millions of concrete,
evident, factors of decision making.
Decision making can be greatly inhibited by disease, trauma, and much more. The
impressions left on the mind from trauma, childhood, or adulthood, greatly affect the
overall being of your mental state. Sigmund Freuds psychoanalysis directly targeted those
traumas in order to understand the reasoning behind certain mental states one could be
under at a given moment (McLeod).
Trauma not only leaves impressions on the mind but also rewrites the wiring of your
mind. Research has begun to show, for example, that children with trauma develop
abnormal neuropathways in the brain. So, what was originally environmental exposure to
trauma becomes physiological, (McGee).
Knowing that life is nearly always far from ideal, psychology has adapted to the
endless possibilities of this world by instilling emotion, rationalization, inventions, and
much more. Knowledge of the brain and its way has been made possible by the vast array
of technology used to screen brain waves, neuronal and physical.
Conclusion and Recommendations
It is evident that the process of decision making varies for each situation and
scenario one is faced with. With neurological activation varying across the vast nervous
system, a lot of factors truly contribute to the arrival of a decision- simple or difficult. From
conscious decision making to unconscious, rapid cognition, when one arrives at a decision,
hundreds of internal and external processes happen- often times unique to the individual

experiencing it. From the forebrain to the inner reptilian brain, the human mind will work
in its magically natural way to pick and choose what needs to be analyzed in times of
importance. Through research using breakthrough neurological technology, elegant
experiments, and personal intuition of philosophy, the field of neurology, philosophy, and
psychology relevant to decision making conscious and unconscious is growing. In the last
20 years, we saw more progress in research regarding this topic than the last 500 years of
humanity. It is only evident to believe that progression will continue.
Understanding the way in which people arrive at conclusions and decisions is
powerful for immersing yourself in the world around you. Furthering research of this field
would require more experiments designed to specifically target an outcome. Research has
been conducted to see the effects of alcoholism, gambling, addictions, and more regarding
decision making which is significant. A problem, however, is the lack of knowledge on the
normal. Typically, research is not conducted on the normal but rather those afflicted with
trauma and conditions that set them apart from the normal- outliers. To improve the study, a
more in depth connection with those personally involved in the field of neuro-research
would be exceedingly beneficial. Finding that, however, is difficult considering the little
magnitude this field has. The study is aimed at the human race as a whole- those wishing to
extend the barriers of thought. One can go from a lifestyle of doubting the connections of
the world to valuing the concepts and philosophies that is life is a cycle of relevant, mindblowing connections.

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