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Learn Something New
- Daisy Mae
- Mar 16, 2016
- 1 min read
Why Do Some of Us Take Action and Others Stand Idly By?
''Donald Trump. Police brutality. Income disparity. Diminished reproductive rights. There’s certainly no shortage of outrage-inducing topics these days, but that doesn’t change the fact that real work is required to bring about true reform and social justice. Yet all too often, even the most passionate among us slip into slacktivism, dispatching the occasional hashtag or Facebook scuffle rather than finding ways to get involved and actually do something to address the issues we care the most about.
There’s a reason we do this, and it isn’t because millennials are self-entitled, or because we’re all hypocrites. It actually has to do with the way our brains naturally evaluate risk—making us more reluctant to take on the responsibilities of true activism.
Vetting risk is a complex brain calculation. While researching this topic for my new book The Art of Risk: The New Science of Courage, Caution, and Chance, I uncovered some compelling neuroscience related to the moment when humans weigh a bold decision. It all comes down to what’s happening with one special circuit in your brain—the mesocortical limbic circuit, to be precise—as it draws information from the outside world and your past experiences to help you decide whether to move forward or stay put. When you make that risky decision, you’re using something called the insula. It’s a small region with big reach, helping you form visceral memories and opinions...''
by Kayt Sukel
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