Decision Making and Stress

Innate human approaches toward decision making and danger come from thousands of years of accumulated conditioning.

Psychologists tell us that stress is a problem in modern times due to our innate “fight or flight” approach to perceived danger. Adrenalin courses through our bodies as we prepare to do battle or run for our lives. The problem is that the dangers most of us face today are not “fight or flight” events. And for some, the “fight or flight” response is almost continuous. The almost constant adrenalin rush that modern life puts us through is not the way our bodies are supposed to work. The “fight or flight” response was supposed to be a relatively rare event, not a constant condition. The solution, according to the psychologists, is to “re-program” our reaction to perceived danger.

Similarly, our approach to decision making is based on the need to decide quickly and do something to avoid danger. Our ancestors made decisions quickly, with little information, to avoid great danger. It was a survival skill. However, today most of the significant decisions we face are not related to survival and are not served well by our innate “gut instinct” style of decision making. The solution is to use a thorough, structured process toward decision making that allows us to digest the enormous amount of information available to us in the modern age.

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