As far as the logical vs emotional part of the brain, I am left handed..this is an oversimplification, but..the right side of the brain-that is the emotion,physical, visual, artistic side..controls the left side of the body. The left side of the brain-the logical,rational, language side of the brain, also controls the right hand. So left handers may be slightly more emotional and less logical. The right brain is more like the brain of other animals, the left brain is more a product of human evolution.

So while it is much more complex than that, there is a stereotype of left handed pitchers being more flakey. My own experience is that I cannot talk and work at the same time..I need to concentrate harder to use my left brain.

This makes me think maybe we should MRI manager’s brains on a routine basis, looking to spot unfortunate tendencies (like sacrifice bunts with no outs and looking favorably on “productive outs”) before they get too bad.

And you don’t even need that. You can know with certainty the some sets of beliefs are internally inconsistent, and thus that anyone who holds one of those sets of beliefs must be wrong about some of it. You can know that a specific conclusion isn’t conlusively supported by the available evidence, and thus that anyone who’s reached that conclusion is at the very least premature, and possibly wrong.

I find that I’m uncertain about a great many things, but I’m often certain that I should be uncertain about them, and that those who are not uncertain have made a logical error.

In an absolutely ideal universe that might be true, but there’s no such thing as absolutely conclusive facts/evidence/information in this world. Even at the most fundamental level there is always some uncertainty about anything, even if it’s just an infinitely small chance.

Say I witnessed a bank robbery, I absolutely know I saw the guy’s face and can identify him. I might actually be entirely wrong, there’s a chance I hallucinated the entire event, or my brain may be filling in details of imperfect memories to create the face I remember.

DNA evidence doesn’t absolutely identify someone either, even ignoring twin possibilities it’s just reducing the possible subset of people that match it to the smallest number possible.

Beyond that, it’s possible the world I’m experiencing doesn’t truly exist. This could all be one complex illusion created in some alien lab somewhere. I really can believe that every decision we make and every conclusion we draw has some emotional componant to it, we can infinitely approach perfect logic but there has to be that point where you decide the chances of a fundamental problem with your starting principles are low enough to disregard.

Yes, but if they reach that threshhold logically, and they know that they must in order to feel comfortable, doesn’t that make the judgement logical?

If I’m the ideal rational agent, and I know that I’m not willing to draw a conclusion without conclusive evidence, then my conclusions are gong to be wholly rational, regardless of whatever emotional impact they have.

I would love to see results of a study on what happens in the brains of Willie F. Bloomquist haters/fans when they digest damning facts about their favored gritty, scrappy local-boy-turned-Mariner hero/goat.

Willie has an uncommon ability to generate flares of activity in both the brain’s pleasure and pain centers when stats about his performance are disseminated.

I could go on all day about this subject, but here’s my favorite neuroscientific fact: all human decisions are emotional.

I am an engineer and, after doing in sales and marketing, I quickly came to the same realization.

There is the quintessential image of the engineer with his/her clipboard and chart, making an objective and unbiased decision. It’s hogwash. People do something (such as buying a car, making a amrriage proposal, or joining a service club) when they are comfortable doing so.

Making checklists and weighting scores is simply a device that some people use to help them get comfortable with making a decision. Other people, who don’t like charts and graphs reach their comfort level in less “quantifiable” ways. Doesn’t make that much difference in the end; the person decides only when they are comfortable deciding, and not one second sooner.

I’ve only briefly read/heard of the concept of emotional intelligence, but basically it is the ability to be aware of how your emotions are affecting your actions and your judgement. It’s a good thing to develop for interacting with people, but I imagine it would also help when you are trying to overcome your own biases. If I remember correctly, it involves different congnitive process than analytical skills.

I know in my experience, I’m much more prone to tackling some analytical process when I know what I’m looking for, and it’s particuarly true of baseball analysis. Most of the time when I’m taking a detailed look at numbers, I’m really trying hard to confirm my own presuppositions.