Most have felt, at some point, that they were bad at something. This feeling for some was in math class when they were struggling to remember that formula, or some struggled in chemistry where they struggled to understand the abstract concepts. No matter what it was, many of us have had the passing thought, ” I feel stupid, so I must be bad at this.” Even though feeling stupid doesn’t always prove you’re bad at something, some think it’s proof to their lack of potential in something. Psychologists call that emotional reasoning, a cognitive habit that tries to link logical reasoning with feelings. Emotions are part of being a human, and it is deeply engrained in all of us.

The Wiring of The Human Brain

The human brain has two primary routes for processing emotional triggers: “Fast track” and “slow track”. Fast track neural pathways prioritize speed over accuracy, which can make feelings such as fear, anger, happiness, or sadness feel like an undeniable fact. Whenever there is an emotional stimulus, information travels from the sensory thalamus to the amygdala. The sensory thalamus is a relay center for your brain. Every piece of information your brain collects from your 5 senses (touch, sound, sight, smell, taste) go here first Then are sent to other parts of the brain. The amygdala acts like the alarm system of your brain, and it detects your emotions, and it lets your body know how it should react to the information it was presented. The sensory thalamus has a shortcut pathway to the amygdala, so information can travel between them very quickly. Because of this fast connection in the brain, you can make quick decisions about something and skip the logical thinking steps, and it saves time in a survival situation. This is why your brain goes,” SNAKE!” and you jump even if it’s just a garden hose. Because of this neat ability we can make split second decisions that could save our lives without thinking much of it.

The second way your brain processes emotional triggers is slow track neural pathways. Like the name suggest, it is a slower, more thought out reasoning that takes about 3-4 times longer than fast track neural pathways to travel. In slow track thinking information goes through the sensory cortex and prefrontal cortex. The sensory cortex actually identifies your 5 senses like what are you actually seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. The prefrontal cortex is your brain’s decision maker and takes care of things like logic, planning, and impulse control. The prefrontal cortex receives information from the sensory cortex, evaluates the information, and makes a more logical decision.

Why our Brains Lie to Us

The brain prioritizes quick thinking survival over careful reasoning. Because of this, emotional reactions can happen before logical thinking, which is why people often mistake strong feelings for objective facts. It also doesn’t help how our brain is wired because emotions are the first and fastest thing your brain detects in a situation, because of this sometimes people lash out on emotions only to later to regret what they did. Their emotions took over and their rational thinking came in much later than they wanted. Our brains weren’t wired to be truth detectors but rather to protect us. A great example of this is memory, every time we recall a memory our brain edits the memory to match our current feelings. Our brain is constantly interpreting the world in its own lens. Now I’m not saying that we are incapable of truly using logic, but I’m rather saying that it makes it that much more difficult whenever emotions are high.

Sometimes reasoning with emotion is not so bad, especially when the problem is moral, because the best moral judgements come from a combination of emotional and logical reasoning, but it can also be a cause of strife when people of opposing moral views clash.

The same wiring of the human brain that helps us make quick decisions, form relationships, and reason can also blur the lines between what we feel and what is real. Emotions arrive first to fill in, and the logic comes later just in time.