On page 14 of the article, the author discusses the fact that humans do not rely on one single mental mode, but rather many mental modes with one as the focus. My question regarding this would be, is it common for a person to consistently make decisions based on the same mental mode as the focus? I agree with the author’s point that humans use more than one mental mode when making decisions. I have noticed differences in the responses of some of my peers; some make decisions very fast and just accept things, and others take more time to think them through, especially regarding more emotional decisions. Personally, I try not to let my emotions affect my decisions, and while I am not always successful, I feel as though I generally come to the same conclusion when I think this way. I also feel as though my emotional mental mode is similar to my instinctual mental mode sometimes, possibly interacting with one another in decision making. When the author brought up the Star Wars quote on page 13 directed at Luke Skywalker “Trust your feelings”, the author was referring to an emotional mental mode. To me, that relates to “trust your instincts”, and while emotions were at play, instinctual responses would over power those emotions, or go hand in hand. So my second question would be are emotions or instincts more powerful in decision making? For example, if you were an animal lover and you saw an injured wild animal on the side of the road, your emotions would want you to help it, but your instincts would tell you not to because it could be sick and hurt you. In a situation such as this, one would use many forms of mental modes to come to a conclusion, just as the author pointed out, with emphasis on a specific mental mode (emotional or instinctual).
I like your question about whether emotion or instincts are more powerful in decision-making. For me, I feel that this depends on the person as many people are raised differently and some people’s emotions are more prevalent than others. In my art and gender class, we spoke on how women are generally more open in showing their emotions than men are and I believe that this can affect a lot of decisions. There are a lot of people, including both men and women, who are more robotic with their emotions and generally make more logical decisions because they have multiple mental modes working at the same time to make an educated decision, just not an emotional mental mode in most cases. The thing that intrigues me is that almost everyone at some point makes an emotional decision on something and I question what exactly triggers that emotional response to make a decision. I feel that Lewis makes a lot of good points in “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives” in how many mental modes can be active in the decision making process, but it depends on the person ultimately on what decision is made.
I agree with you on the point that emotional responses differ depending on how one is raised, and also gender in many cases. In “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives”, Lewis doesn’t focus on the idea that gender may play a strong role. I found your question regarding what specifically triggers an emotional response very interesting. While Lewis argues that it may be difficult to define your own mental mode when making choices, understanding what triggers a specific response may be easier. I think you’re right when you stated that everyone makes an emotional decision at some point; even my peers who display the toughest exteriors have made emotional decisions. I believe some broad things that could trigger these responses include family, and loved ones in general. These are the strongest examples in my opinion because people have been known to make impulsive and careless decisions when dealing with close relationships.