Is your amygdala stuck in the “on” position? Situations in life arise that may throw you into a fight or flight response. If you ask yourself if you are safe and your response is no, your amygdala will launch you into a rapid response to save your life. Due to our current world and political situations that are volatile, many of us are stuck in alert mode. Covid, violence, conflict, climate change, political madness create stress that threatens to overload and overwhelm everyone individually and collectively. Your ability to maintain composure and make correct responses are based on your “Emotional Intelligence” and are more critical now than ever.
What happens when your brain misfunctions and you find yourself facing an amygdala hijack? Will you even recognize that you’ve lost your mind and are acting up and acting out?
There’s always been a part of the population that’s vulnerable to those who use fear porn to manipulate the masses (fear porn is irresistible images that scare and fascinate you). Fear of dying and going to hell was an early strategy of religions. The ability to analyze and empathize is critical when it comes to making decisions that affect you individually while you simultaneously hold and understand how your decisions affect the world. Empathy’s the key. Compassion puts you in a hierarchy. Empathy allows you to feel the other person, imagine that you walk in their shoes, and when you have empathy, you make decisions that benefit yourself and them as well.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is most often defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. People with high emotional intelligence can recognize their own emotions and those of others, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, and adjust emotions to adapt to environments.[1] Although the term first appeared in 1964,[2] it gained popularity in the 1995 best-selling book Emotional Intelligence, written by science journalist Daniel Goleman. Goleman defined EI as the array of skills and characteristics that drive leadership performance.[3]
Various models have been developed to measure EI. The trait model, developed by Konstantinos V. Petrides in 2001, focuses on self-reporting of behavioral dispositions and perceived abilities.[4] The ability model, developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 2004, focuses on the individual’s ability to process emotional information and use it to navigate the social environment.[5] Goleman’s original model may now be considered a mixed model that combines what has since been modeled separately as ability EI and trait EI. More recent research has focused on emotion recognition, which refers to the attribution of emotional states based on observations of visual and auditory nonverbal cues.[6][7] In addition, neurological studies have sought to characterize the neural mechanisms of emotional intelligence.[8][9]
Studies have shown that people with high EI have greater mental health, job performance, and leadership skills, although no causal relationships have been shown. EI is typically associated with empathy because it involves an individual connecting their personal experiences with those of others. Since its popularization in recent decades, methods of developing EI have become widely sought by individuals seeking to become more effective leaders.
Criticisms have centered on whether EI is a real intelligence, and whether it has incremental validity over IQ and the Big Five personality traits.[10][11] However, meta-analyses have found that certain measures of EI have some validity even when controlling for IQ and personality (see below interview) for more on EI.
What Happens in the Brains of Trumpists? Bobby Azarian Interview by David Packman
DAVID PACKMAN TRANSCRIPTION
Speaker 1: It’s great to have back on the program today Bobbie Azarian, who is a cognitive neuroscientist, blogger for Psychology Today, and also a writer of The Substory Road to Omega. Bobby, it’s great to have you back today.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, David. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So maybe to start with, you know, many of us have been seeing I mean, we can go back and talk about during the pandemic. We can talk about January 6th in many different ways and from different people.
We’ve been seeing behavior that seems dysregulated at a minimum and other words that we could apply to it at worse if we want to. Can you talk first from a neuroscience standpoint? What is it that is happening when people are the way? I would as a layman say it, their common sense seems to be almost hijacked in a sense, and they behave in ways that many of us find hard to imagine ever behaving ourselves. What is it that’s taking place?
Speaker 4: So I guess the first thing I’d say is that if we don’t look at what’s going on through the lens of science, in particular, psychology and more specifically a theory called terror management theory, we’re going to be completely lost about what’s going on.
Things will just seem completely random and chaotic and unpredictable. And in a sense, they are certainly chaotic, but they’re not totally unpredictable. So if we’re looking at things from the perspective of psychology and we look at all of the events that have transpired since really the emergence of Trump, really you can go back farther than that. Then we see that a lot of these responses were due to events that call cause existential fear in people.
THE EMERGENCE OF TRUMP
So, for example, Trump the emergence of Trump himself was a response to fears over ISIS and fears over immigration when Trump took power. Then, for people on the left, their fear was having an incompetent leader that Stokes division in the pandemic hit. And there’s like it’s the biggest form of existential fear. We’re all freaked out.
So when you have those conditions, basically that fear creates certain psychological effects that promote tribalism, that make us more aggressive towards people who don’t share our world view. And once that process happens, it’s very hard to reverse that because there are certain psychological phenomena like something I can talk about in a minute called amygdala hijack, where basically we’re controlled by our fears.
AMYGDALA HIJACK
We’re sort of programmed rather than being these rational thinkers. And once this happens, one side becoming more extreme, polarized, the other side that’s trying to balance that. And then you get on this trajectory where you’re going towards just a more divisive state. And so if you don’t do something to get a hold of that, basically we’re headed towards disaster.
Speaker 1: So let’s think a little bit like, for example, when I hear you say that a lot of this can be triggered when we’re around people that don’t share our world view and it creates this Luban cycle with something like the anti-vaccine, anti-mask protests. I’m not seeing the pro-vaccine and pro mask people behave the same way as the anti, although in some general sense maybe it would happen because both are being challenged in terms of their worldview.
That doesn’t make sense to us as progressives, but it can do things that so the left will be more like gung ho about wearing masks and taking precautions. So I not that it’s not that extreme behavior is always bad. Extremism is bad when the ideas are extremely stupid. So you can have radical good ideas that can transform society. And when you have a situation where there’s this looming existential threat like the pandemic, it can catalyze civil rights movements or it can catalyze civil wars. And really, when the threat is so extreme, it kind of does both those things at the same time.
So going back to what you said, I would argue that it’s not fully on the right and on the left. It manifests itself in different ways, for example. Yeah. So, for example, you have the Black Lives Matter movement and that really exploded after the George Floyd murder. And that was in May, just right at the beginning of the pandemic, when in us we started seeing these like warnings to wear masks, not go outside and stuff like that. And that explosion that protests like nationwide protests occurred because everyone was so fearful because of the pandemic.
BLACK, BLUE & ALL LIVES MATTER
And then you had this like countermovement. You had people like saying blue lives matter in response to Black Lives Matter and. That was problematic, didn’t even make sense because the whole point of Black Lives Matter was saying black lives should matter as much as everyone else’s life. So it was really all lives matter from the beginning. It’s very ironic that like the other side started saying, all lives matter when, like, that was what the first movement was about.
Anyway, you get this defund the police movement in response to like this right-wing blue lives matter, all lives matter thing. And like that slogan like is very extreme. And now I see political campaign ads using that slogan to scare people away from Democrats. So I would say that the left matches the right. They just do it in completely different ways.
Speaker 1: Right. And that’s interesting. You bring up the defund now being used against some on the left. From the beginning, I said I don’t think this is a productive slogan, and here’s why. And it’s very interesting that you point to that. I do want to get you to mention the amygdala hijack. Can you talk about what that is? So we’re all on the same page with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So basically, when we go through life, we’re kind of mostly on autopilot. And some studies have shown that the famous LIBET studies on free will basically we’re programmed and we have a certain set of beliefs and goals and we kind of behaving according to those. But a lot of times our programmed behavior won’t be optimal. So if we’re fearful, we might get aggressive.
When that happens, there’s another part of the brain that is responsible for kicking in and producing rational behavior where we analyze the situation and then we make decisions where we’re more in control than being controlled by our instincts and reflexes. So the two brain areas that are important are the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is involved in processing threats and it is associated with the fear response.
So when we do perceive a threat, basically it triggers the amygdala, and that puts us in a sort of like a fight or flight mode. And then the prefrontal cortex, which is a newer part of the brain evolutionarily, evolutionarily. And that part is supposed to calm the amygdala. And the problem is, in times where fear is superhigh, the prefrontal cortex can’t do its job because the amygdala is just constantly being triggered.
IMPAIRED PREFRONTAL CORTEX RUNS RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS & RACISTS
There are also some interesting studies that show correlations between impaired prefrontal cortex function, which is responsible for this. We call it cognitive control or executive control regulating your emotions. And so we see impaired executive control with people who are religious fundamentalists or we see it with people who score high on surveys of racism.
We see it in people with drug addiction. So basically those people are less in control. You could say they have less free will because they’re unable to override this programming and this effect that you have when basically the amygdala hijacks the cognitive system. So what we can do about that becomes aware of that and simply becoming aware, having what’s called meta-awareness can give you control over that. And then there are exercises you can do, like practicing mindfulness to kind of strengthen the prefrontal cortex because it really is like a muscle.
Speaker 1: Thinking of that, I ask this not to excuse me morally, ethically, or legally the actions of the January 6th rioters, but I ask it in order to try to understand, is it a type of situation where you’re in this mass of people and someone decides to start busting down doors or breaking windows and going in?
Is it possible that you sort of experience an amygdala hijack there and you just kind of are riding high and carried in and participating, not because you went intending to do that, but because the situation around you sort of puts you into that state? Is that a situation where this happens?
Speaker 4: Definitely, and I would like to say that it’s really important to understand these people because we don’t understand the mindset we’ll have will be completely lost in terms of how to get through to them. So when you talk about empathy for these people, it’s not so much about, like wanting to be a better human being, to have empathy, empathy for them. It’s really more about being practical, finding a solution to the problem.
So these people, just like you said during the capital attack, they’re tuned into social media. They’re plugged into the people who are stoking that fear constantly. They’re responding to the others around them and things that are happening in real-time. And so you kind of get this collective effect where it’s like.
The amygdala hijack is kind of like spreading from person to person. And once that happens, if there’s not someone that comes out and says, hey, everybody like this is kind of crazy, right? It’s just going to snowball.
Speaker 1: Is is mob mentality kind of a layman’s term for group amygdala hijack?
Speaker 4: Yes, definitely, it’s related to that, it’s also related to tribalism. I didn’t go into terror management theory. I know we talked about it last time. I could talk about that a little bit in relation to, like, this mob mentality.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would be interested in hearing that because I mean, what we’re you know, many of us are starting to say, is this going to happen again? How likely are these folks who in some online spaces are saying, if we don’t get X, it’s going to be time for January six, part two, or whatever? I think it would be important to understand what it is that could get them there, but also what could prevent a.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, so I think to prevent it, I think to get an understanding of what’s actually going on, we have to understand terror management theory.
So terror management theory starts with the fear of death. So at some point in the evolutionary development of man or humans, should say, we became intelligent enough to be aware of our own mortality, that someday we’re going to inevitably die and be gone and possibly forgotten. And that realization can be paralyzing if you don’t have a psychological mechanism for coping with that.
So when that happened, that necessitated the invention of cultural worldviews like religions, political ideologies, national identities, cultural worldviews basically act as death anxiety buffers by giving us a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Actually, they are said to offer paths to immortality.
So a religion offers a path to literal immortality through the concept of an afterlife. And national identities offer a path to what’s called symbolic immortality through feeling like you’re part of this bigger movement, this bigger idea that will outlive the individual.
TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY
So what terror management theory says is that if cultural worldviews are how we deal with existential fear, then in times when there’s some existential threat looming or we’re reminded of our death for some other reason, we are going to cling to our cultural worldviews more. We’re going to become more tribal and we’re going to become more aggressive towards people who have different worldviews.
So really, it explains tribalism. It’s interesting because the world is basically you needed some sort of worldview to emerge to have human civilization because it’s what binds people together under a common idea. But at the same time, if you have people in different parts of the world, different cultural worldviews are going to emerge. So the thing that unites people within the group is the very same thing that can that divides people into tribes.
So one of the ways to deal with this is to look at your different world views, look at what you have in common, like, for example, look at the things that the right are complaining about and they’re fearful about that are valid. Now, there are going to be a lot of things that are valid, a lot of crazy things that just have nothing to do with reality.
But there are going to be some things that are legitimate concerns, things that they care about. And we try to align interests at that point. And if we can do that, we can start to create some sort of unifying worldview and we really need to do that consciously. It doesn’t happen by accident. So there will be a second capital attack, something not necessarily have capital, but something that’s like that.
Right. We’re headed there. And if we don’t do something very consciously to change that trajectory, I would predict that it will happen for sure.
Speaker 1: So would I. So would I.
We’ve been speaking with Bobby Azarian, who’s a cognitive neuroscientist, blogger for Psychology Today, and also writes The Substance Road to Omega. Bobby, it’s always great having you on. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Great. David, can I mention the road to a megaproject? Yes, that’s really what I and some colleagues and friends and allies have started to design, which sets out a solution for all of this. So everything we talked about, the problem of tribalism, understanding that a Bayesian reasoning system, a logical reason, reasoning system to fight misinformation and conspiracy theories. And that plan is up that road to a mega subsect dotcom. English
Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman coined the concept of the amygdala hijack as part of the theory on Emotional Intelligence/Quotient (EI/EQ). He defined EQ as ‘the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.’
Watch Daniel Goleman explains his theories of emotional intelligence https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y7m9eNoB3NU
In my post “Letting Good Emotions Roll” I gave an overview of how performance is determined by our emotional intelligence. Hay Group identifies EQ as twice as important as IQ in determining future career success. EQ demonstrates an intrinsic link between individual and company performance, and the EQ of its leaders. Emotions are contagious! In leadership teams, hijacks can jeopardize decisions, collaboration, and teamwork. The potential of negative impact and lasting damage is considerable.
Leaders can mitigate hijacks using their EQ – self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social skills. Self-regulation requires understanding and acknowledging your feelings. This strengthens your ability to regulate and control brain function, empowering the rational part of the brain. ‘Affect Labeling’ our responses can help to identify and understand our triggers and take effective action.
Highly successful leaders recognize and identify with the emotional landscape, defusing and managing situations. Employing effective tools positively to de-escalate an issue, using humor and empathy rather than a negative contagion of anger. Goleman observed that the best leaders get people to laugh three times more often. His research showed EQ as a key differentiator for leadership success, becoming increasingly important the more senior people become.
EQ has a considerable impact on performance and on how people perceive you. There are some tactics to help maintain control during challenging times:
- Understand your trigger points and know when you are reaching your threshold
- Plan ahead, recognise risk factors and potential derailers, plan accordingly
- Wait at least six seconds before responding; breath deeply
- Acknowledge your feelings and create choices
- Take a considered choice, enable your prefrontal cortex to operate
- Check and modify your behaviour accordingly
- Acknowledge when you have been hijacked, identify and label the trigger for the future
