Mitigating Our Cautious Brain

In her hardwired caution speech, Katarina Gospic uses a thought experiment to determine the roots of our prudent tendencies. It turns out the amygdala, our primitive emotional brain structure, is responsible for our cagey decision- making processes. In fact, there is an emotional bias in our decision-making that oftentimes makes us respond in irrational ways.

The brain is wired to choose "sure wins" over "sure losses;" in other words, we tend to privilege rewards and avoid punishment. In order to determine this, the amygdala often instructs us to shy away from unknown territory; however, in everyday decision-making this can prove to be a detriment, as we can miss out on great opportunities.

Gospic ends the speech with yet another experiment to illustrate how our brain has a fear-based default priority; however, she believes we can mitigate this response by utilizing our brain power and enhancing our exploration.