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Better than Conscious? The Brain, the Psyche, Behavior, and InstitutionsChristoph EngelMax Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods; University of Bonn - Faculty of Law & Economics; Universität Osnabrück - Faculty of Law Wolf SingerMax Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Max Planck Institute for Brain Research December 2007 MPI Collective Goods Preprint Paper No. 2007/24 Abstract: The title of this chapter is deliberately provocative. Intuitively, many will be inclined to see conscious control of mental process as a good thing. Yet control comes at a high price. The consciously not directly controlled, automatic, parallel processing of information is not only much faster, it also handles much more information, and it does so in a qualitatively different manner. This different mental machinery is not adequate for all tasks. The human ability to consciously deliberate has evolved for good reason. But on many more tasks than one might think at first sight, intuitive decision-making, or at least an intuitive component in a more complex mental process, does indeed improve performance. This chapter presents the issue, offers concepts to understand it, discusses the effects in terms of problem solving capacity, contrasts norms for saying when this is a good thing, and points to scientific and real world audiences for this work.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 22 JEL Classification: C70, C91, D01, D81, K41 working papers seriesDate posted: December 17, 2007Suggested CitationContact Information
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