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Procrastination
The Dominance Of Emotions In Our Lives
Insights from two world-class intellectuals.
Posted April 11, 2019
Frans de Waal is one of the world’s best-known primatologists. His most recent book, Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves is captivating. As the title suggests, we can learn a lot about ourselves through a better understanding of primate’s emotions.
Surprisingly, one of these primatologist’s interests is behavioral economics, an area for which the University of Chicago economist Richard Thaler is famous.
These leading thinkers of our time have come to similar conclusions about human nature.
In a recent interview that I heard with de Waal, he said that,
“I think we humans, especially in the West, we love calling ourselves rational. We are rational beings and that sets us apart. But actually we are very emotional beings and in writing this book I started to realize how much our lives are dictated by the emotions...I think we underestimate the enormous influence of the emotions in our lives.”
On a similar note, in a television interview I watched that featured Richard Thaler discussing why people fail to invest in retirement savings as they should, he said, “People are more like Homer Simpson than they are homo economicus” (my memory and paraphrase here). In fact, much of Thaler’s work provides evidence of how we are predictably irrational.
Thinking of Homer Simpson for just a moment, it’s clear that Homer’s modus operandi might be summed up as “feel good now.” It’s all about good feelings in the present. In fact, in one episode of The Simpsons, I recall Homer saying, “That’s a problem for future Homer. Man, I don’t envy that guy!”
These two generalizations about the human condition, that
- “we underestimate the enormous influence of the emotions in our lives” and
- “we’re more like Homer Simpson than homo economicus”
are really essential to understanding our lives. However, we often neglect how central emotions are in our lives, particularly in our decision making.
A case in point for me is my own research on procrastination. In a recent discussion with a fellow Psychology Today blogger about procrastination, he emphasized both rationality and intelligence as the route to salvation from the irrationality of needless delay. I think he couldn’t be more wrong on this point.
Perhaps it’s easiest to make my point in response to this position by having you imagine how well-reasoned argument works with Homer Simpson. And remember, a Nobel prize-winning economist thinks we are all a lot like Homer. Certainly, that’s why most of us laugh at, and with, Homer.
Intelligence is important, no doubt, but not the cognitive kind captured by block design or digit span in typical IQ tests. It’s emotional intelligence that is key to breaking bad habits like procrastination or just making a better life for ourselves.
Returning to where I began with de Waal’s new book, Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves, the “Mama” referred to in his title is a 59-year-old chimpanzee, the matriarch of her colony. She was dying, so a researcher who knew her well went to visit. On this visit, he did something that no one ever does with adult chimpanzees. He actually went into the cage with her. She greeted him enthusiastically with a smile, embraced him, but also patted him on the back to comfort him. As de Waal noted, this is something that mother chimpanzees do to whining infants to calm them down. Given the circumstances of the in-cage visit with his dying primate friend, the researcher was nervous and emotional. Mama sensed this, and she responded with a calming pat.
This is the kind of intelligence I’m referring to—being able to identify and work with our own emotions and the emotions of others.
In our research on procrastination, we have certainly seen evidence of how self-report measures of emotional intelligence relate to lower levels of procrastination. If we know our emotions, we can deal with them as opposed to avoiding them and the tasks that provoke these emotions in us.
It’s not about “outsmarting” our desire to feel good now. It’s not about applying more willpower to force ourselves through to action. The solution to procrastination begins by recognizing how procrastination is a coping mechanism that makes us very much like Homer Simpson. We’re focused on feeling good now, which works for the present self, but future self? Well, Homer got it right. “Man, I don’t envy that guy.”
Perhaps, what we need is a pat from Mama so that we might calm down and carry on with our intended task. And, even if we can’t get that pat from Mama, what we certainly need is more attention to how our emotions really do rule the day.
