Who Makes The Decision?
On March 1st, 1950, a natural gas explosion in Nebraska blew up a church. Choir practice at the west Side Baptist church usually kicked off at 7:20 pm. The church exploded at 7:25, but not a single person was killed or injured. The choir members often arrived early, but on that day, every single one of them was late. Ladonna Vandergrift, a high school student, decided to finish her math homework before going to practice. Marilyn Ruth and her parents showed up late because she decided to change her clothes. Ronda and her sister had car trouble and had to wait for Ladonna to finish her homework, so she could drive them. Mrs. Schuster and her daughter decided to stop at her mother's house before choir practice. Herbert Kipf decided that he had to write an important letter before he could go. Joyce Black was feeling “ just plain lazy.” Harvey Ahl and his two children were running late because he was talking and lost track of time. Marilyn Paul was planning on going early, but she fell asleep. Marilyn's mother was behind schedule because she had to wake her daughter up. Lucille Jones and Dorothy Wood, both high school students, decided to finish listening to a radio program before going. All 15 of these people made small choice that saved their lives. Why did they make these decisions? Why did they decide writing a letter or finishing their homework, or listening to a radio program was more important than being late for choir practice?
Research says these decision might not be decisions at all. To be more specific, they might not be conscious decisions. In a research study at the Max Planck Institute, participants were given a choice to press a button with either their left or right hand. The only rule was they needed to record when they made the choice. During this experiment, the participants were having their brains scanned with an MRI. Looking at these brain scans, the researchs were able to clearly see different brain patterns for participants who chose the left button and participants who chose the right button. Interestingly, the brain scans showed that the participants made their decisions seven second before they had recorded making the choice. In other words, the decision was made before their conscious mind was aware of it. While this may not be true for all decisions, certainly some of our decisions are happening unconsciously before we know it . How much of your life is controlled by your unconscious mind? Maybe you already answered this question seven seconds ago.
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