Personalities Of The Triune Brain (7/7)

Decisions, Personality And The Triune Brain Model

Each of our three brains evolved for a specific purpose. Our reptilian brain is concerned with physical survival, our emotional brain with our emotional responses and our thinking brain with decision making and logical thought.

However despite having three brains in the same skull, each brain does not communicate well with each other and our older brains tend to dominate our newer brains.

Unfortunately this can result in many people living unconscious lives, acting out pre-programmed behaviours in response to a variety of environmental triggers.

If these triggers are skillfully used, as they often are in the media and advertising, they can influence your behaviour and cause you to act in a predictable way.

For example, fear is often used by governments to get the population to go along with plans or agendas.

By using fear the reptilian brain is activated, and one of its pre-programmed behavioural responses when confronted with a threat, is to dominate or submit to it.

Therefore fear can be used to encourage the population to “submit” to new proposals, and/or “dominate” the enemy.

How Much Of Your Life Do You Really Control?

Overall the Triune Brain Model is an extremely interesting model of the brain, and certainly does help to explain a lot about human behaviour. However it is also a model that raises a lot of questions, and a lot of concerns.

If each new brain evolved to serve the needs of the older brain what does this mean for the neocortex, our thinking brain?

We like to think that our thoughts and actions are a result of what we want to do, but as has been discussed in previous articles a lot of our behaviours are not a direct result of our conscious thoughts, but rather as a result of our feelings, our “emotional state of mind”.

The fact that the emotional brain can so easily overpower our thinking brain, and in some cases (such as during fear) completely control it, is very worrying.

It is even more worrying when you find out the media and advertisers deliberately use triggers that result in reptilian and emotional brain responses, thereby bypassing your logical mind and rational decision making process.

This certainly begs the question of how much of our actions, and how much of our thoughts, are truly our own?

And are we just helpless observers, acting out pre-programmed behaviours in response to these triggers? These are serious questions, which don’t seem so far fetched when we look at the Triune Brain Model.

The Neocortex And Decision Making

I do believe the neocortex, our thinking brain, evolved for a reason. That being, to give us the ability to live a conscious life, and be the master of our unconscious brains, not a slave to them.

The trouble is, many people still tend to think of the brain as one large single organ, and therefore do not take into consideration the powerful influence the reptilian and emotional brains have on their behaviour.

As a result, a large percentage of the population are driven by their emotions, which they mistakenly interpret as their own original thoughts.

By becoming aware of these influences, by becoming conscious of them, we can use the neocortex for what it was meant for. Logically and rationally making sense of our reptilian and emotional brain messages.

Only by consciously becoming conscious, will you be able to live a conscious life. And this is why it is so important to strengthen your thinking brain, and learn to control your emotional and primal urges and impulses.

Triune Brain Model And Personality Types

One of the most important things I have learnt from the Triune Brain Model, is that human behaviour can drastically alter depending on what trigger a person is exposed to, and therefore what brain they are reacting with.

Reptilian Anger

A person who is made to feel angry, threatened, worried or stressful, is likely to react in a predominantly reptilian way.

They may become irritable, display anger, shout, spout verbal abuse or even become physically violent. Reacting like a wild animal defending its territory.

Trying to reason with this frame of mind will be extremely difficult, as their irrational reptilian and emotional brains will likely disregard anything you have to say (unless you are agreeing with them, and being submissive).

In fact trying to reason with an angry person may only serve to enrage them further, as the reptilian brain may perceive your attempts to reason with them as a threat.

This in turn may activate a behavioural response from your reptilian brain and before you know it, you are in a “shouting match”.

When dealing with angry people, it is best to let them “cool down” and wait for their thinking logical brain to come back online. Only then should you approach them, and try to reason with them.

Emotional Love

A person who falls in love, or is infatuated with someone, is likely to see that person as being perfect. As if they could do no wrong.

This can cause them to overlook faults a person may have, or come up with irrational explanations/excuses for them. Possibly even causing them to stay in a relationship that is not healthy for them, such as an abusive relationship.

If someone is infatuated with you, really likes or admires you, they can also be easily persuaded and will be very forgiving of any mistakes you make. In the wrong hands, this power can be seriously abused.

Neocortical Reasoning

Finally a person who is driven predominantly by their thinking brain, will always put their emotions aside and think about things rationally.

Even though they may disagree with what you are saying, if they can see that it makes sense, they will go along with it because it is the best option available.

This is what we should all be aiming for, as emotions tend only to cloud your judgement.

Concluding Remarks

Watch out for the affects emotions have on you, and never make an important decision when you are very angry or very happy.

Otherwise your decision making will be impaired, and may result in you making bad choices that you later regret.

Be aware of the triggers around you, especially those in the media and advertising. If you suddenly find yourself wanting to buy something, do something, or behave in a certain way, question yourself as to why you are feeling this way.

Detach yourself from the trigger, and rationally think about the best course of action to take from an emotionally neutral point of view.

And lastly, remember that people are not always as they appear to be. They can be angry (reptilian brain), emotional (emotional brain) and logical (thinking brain) depending on the triggers they are exposed to.

Exposure to a trigger can completely change a persons personality, turning them into a different person from the person you thought you knew.

Be aware of this when dealing with people and try to determine what brain they are reacting with, so that you can respond in the best possible way.