Are Emotions Reliable Guides for Policy Making? An Evolutionary Approach
Abstract Technology has become all-important in modern society. For each application, it is crucial for society to have a good understanding of the risks and benefits involved. However, experts tend to assess the risks very differently than the public. One of the main reasons is that experts tend to rely on an objective analysis of the facts, whereas laypeople’s judgment is also based on other factors, including emotional responses. The question remains however whether that is a good thing. Some argue that emotions lead to biases and should be treated with great suspicion; others claim that the laypeople’s approach to risk is much richer and should also be taken into consideration. In this paper, I explore how we can answer that important question from an evolutionary perspective. First, I briefly outline the role of emotions in judgment and decision making. Next, I discuss two approaches that have defended the rationality of emotions: Roeser’s concept of emotions as trustworthy indicators of moral risks and Kahan’s cultural evaluator theory. Subsequently, I briefly discuss the evolution of emotions and their impact on risk assessment. I conclude from that account that emotions are not trustworthy guide for policy making.
- Referencias
- Cómo citar
- Del mismo autor
- Métricas
AMMANN, Klaus. 2008.“Integratedfarming: whyorganicfarmersshouldusetransgenic crops”. New Biotechnology 25 (2-3):101-107. doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2008.08.012.
BLANCKE, Stefaan, VAN BREUSEGEM, Frank, DE JAEGER, Geert, BRAECKMAN. Johan & VAN MONTAGU, Marc. 2015, in press. “Fatal attraction: The intuitive appeal of GMO opposition”. Trends in Plant Science. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.011.
BLOOM, Paul. 2014. “Against empathy”. Boston review.
BOUDRY, Maarten, VLERICK, Michael, & MCKAY, Ryan. 2014, in press. “Can evolution get us off the hook? Evaluating the ecological defence of human rationality”. Consciousness and Cognition. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.08.025.
BRAND, Stewart. 2009. Whole earth discipline. New York: Viking.
BROOKES, Graham, & PETER Barfoot. 2011. “Global impact of biotech crops: Environmental effects 1996-2009”. GM Crops 2 (1): 34-49.
D’AGNOLO, G. 2005. “GMO: Human Health Risk Assessment”. Veterinary Research Communications 29 (0): 7-11. doi: 10.1007/s11259-005-0003-7.
DAMASIO, Antonio R. 1994. Descartes’ error: emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: G. P. Putnam.
DE SOUSA, Ronald. 2010. “Here’s How I Feel: Don’t Trust Your Feelings!” In Emotions and Risky Technologies, edited by Sabine Roeser, 17-35. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority. 2012. “Review of the Séralini et al. (2012) publication on a 2-year rodent feeding study with glyphosate formulations and GM maize NK603 as published online on 19 September 2012 in Food and Chemical Toxicology”. EFSA Journal 10 (10).
EVANS, Dylan. 2010 a. “Emotions as Aids and Obstacles in Thinking About Risky Technologies”. In Emotions and Risky Technologies, edited by Sabine Roeser, 81-88. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
EVANS, Jonathan St B T. 2010 b. Thinking twice. Two minds in one brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FESSLER, D. M. T., E. G. Pillsworth, & T. J. Flamson. 2004. “Angry men and disgusted women: An evolutionary approach to the influence of emotions on risk taking”. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 95 (1): 107123. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2004.06.006.
FINUCANE, Melissa L., Ali Alhakami, Paul Slovic, & Stephen M. Johnson. 2000. “The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits”. Journal of Behavioral DecisionMaking13(1):1-17.doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0771(200001/03)13:1<1::aidbdm333>3.0.co;2-s.
FRANK, R. H. 1988. Passions within reason: The strategic role of the emotions. New York: Norton.
GASKELL, George; Sally Stares; Agnes Allansdottir; Nick Allum; Paul Castro; Yilmaz Esmer; Claude Fischler; Jonathan Jackson; Nicole Kronberger; Jürgen Hampel; Niels Mejlgaard; Alex Quintanilha; Andu Rammer; Gemma Revuelta; Paul Stoneman; Helge Torgersen & Wolfgang Wagner. 2010. Europeans and biotechnology in 2010. Winds of change? A report to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
GELMAN, Susan A. 2004. “Psychological essentialism in children”. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 (9): 404-409. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.001.
GILOVICH, Thomas, Dale Griffin, & Daniel Kahneman, eds. 2002. Heuristics and biases. The pyschology of intuitive judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
HASELTON, M. G., & D. M. Buss. 2000. “Error management theory: A new perspective on biases in cross-sex mind reading”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78 (1): 81-91. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.78.1.81.
HASELTON, Martie G., & Timothy Ketelaar. 2006. “Irrational emotions or emotional wisdom? The evolutionary psychology of emotions and behavior”. In Hearts and minds: Affective influences on social cognition and behavior, edited by Joseph P. Forgas, 21-40. New York: Psychology Press.
HASELTON, Martie G.; David Nettle, & Paul W. Andrews. 2005. “The evolution of cognitive bias”. In The handbook of evolutionary psychology, edited by David M. Buss, 724-746. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
HEATH, Chip, Chris Bell, & Emily Sternberg. 2001. “Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81 (6): 1028-1041. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1028.
KAHAN, Dan M. 2008. “Two conceptions of emotion in risk regulation”. University of Pennsylvania Law Review 156: 741-766.
KAHNEMAN, Daniel. 2011. Thinking fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
KASS, Leon R. 1997. “The wisdom of repugnance”. New Republic 216 (22).
Kelly, Daniel. 2011. Yuck! The nature and moral significance of disgust. Cambridge: MIT Press.
LOEWENSTEIN, George F.; Elke U. Weber, Christopher K. Hsee & Ned Welch. 2001. “Risk as feelings”. Psychological Bulletin 127 (2): 267-286. doi: 10.1037/00332909.127.2.267.
NICHOLS, Shaun. 2002. “On The Genealogy Of Norms: A Case For The Role Of Emotion In Cultural Evolution”. Philosophy of Science 69 (2): 234-255.
PINKER, Steven. 1997. How the mind works. New York: Norton.
QAIM, Matin. 2010. “Benefits of genetically modified crops for the poor: household income, nutrition, and health”. New Biotechnology 27 (5): 552-557.
ROESER, Sabine. 2006. “The role of emotions in judging the moral acceptability of risks”. Safety Science 44 (8): 689-700.
ROESER, Sabine. 2010. “Emotional Reflection About Risks”. In Emotions and Risky Technologies, edited by Sabine Roeser, 231-244. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. ROESER, Sabine. 2011. “Nuclear Energy, Risk, and Emotions”. Philosophy &Technology 24 (2): 197-201. doi: 10.1007/s13347-011-0027-6.
SÉRALINI, Gilles-Eric; EmilieClair; RobinMesnage; SteeveGress; NicolasDefarge; Manuela Malatesta; Didier Hennequin & Joël Spiroux de Vendômois. 2012. “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize”. Food and Chemical Toxicology 50 (11): 4221-4231.
SLOVIC, Paul. 1987. “Perception of risk”. Science 236 (4799): 280-285. doi: 10.1126/ science.3563507.
SLOVIC, Paul; Melissa L. Finucane; Ellen Peters & Donald G. MacGregor. 2002. “The affect heuristic”. In Heuristics and biases. The psychology of intuitive judgment, edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin and Daniel Kahneman, 397-
420. New York: Cambridge University Press.
SPERBER, Dan. 1996. Explaining culture. A naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell. Tooby, John and Leda Cosmides. 2008. “The evolutionary psychology of the emotions and their relationship to internal regulatory variables”. In Handbook of emotions, edited by Michael Lewis, Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones and Lisa Feldman Barrett, 114-137. New York: Guilford Press.
TVERSKY, A. & D. Kahneman. 1974. “Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases”. Science 185 (4157): 1124-1131.
TYBUR, Joshua M.; Debra Lieberman; Robert Kurzban & Peter DeScioli. 2013. “Disgust: Evolved Function and Structure”. Psychological Review 120 (1): 65-84. doi: 10.1037/a0030778.
VOSNIADOU, Stella. 2008. International handbook of research on conceptual change, Educational psychology handbook series. New York: Routledge.
ZAJONC, R. B. 1980. “Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences”. American Psychologist 35 (2): 151-175. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.35.2.151.
BLANCKE, Stefaan, VAN BREUSEGEM, Frank, DE JAEGER, Geert, BRAECKMAN. Johan & VAN MONTAGU, Marc. 2015, in press. “Fatal attraction: The intuitive appeal of GMO opposition”. Trends in Plant Science. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.011.
BLOOM, Paul. 2014. “Against empathy”. Boston review.
BOUDRY, Maarten, VLERICK, Michael, & MCKAY, Ryan. 2014, in press. “Can evolution get us off the hook? Evaluating the ecological defence of human rationality”. Consciousness and Cognition. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.08.025.
BRAND, Stewart. 2009. Whole earth discipline. New York: Viking.
BROOKES, Graham, & PETER Barfoot. 2011. “Global impact of biotech crops: Environmental effects 1996-2009”. GM Crops 2 (1): 34-49.
D’AGNOLO, G. 2005. “GMO: Human Health Risk Assessment”. Veterinary Research Communications 29 (0): 7-11. doi: 10.1007/s11259-005-0003-7.
DAMASIO, Antonio R. 1994. Descartes’ error: emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: G. P. Putnam.
DE SOUSA, Ronald. 2010. “Here’s How I Feel: Don’t Trust Your Feelings!” In Emotions and Risky Technologies, edited by Sabine Roeser, 17-35. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority. 2012. “Review of the Séralini et al. (2012) publication on a 2-year rodent feeding study with glyphosate formulations and GM maize NK603 as published online on 19 September 2012 in Food and Chemical Toxicology”. EFSA Journal 10 (10).
EVANS, Dylan. 2010 a. “Emotions as Aids and Obstacles in Thinking About Risky Technologies”. In Emotions and Risky Technologies, edited by Sabine Roeser, 81-88. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
EVANS, Jonathan St B T. 2010 b. Thinking twice. Two minds in one brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FESSLER, D. M. T., E. G. Pillsworth, & T. J. Flamson. 2004. “Angry men and disgusted women: An evolutionary approach to the influence of emotions on risk taking”. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 95 (1): 107123. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2004.06.006.
FINUCANE, Melissa L., Ali Alhakami, Paul Slovic, & Stephen M. Johnson. 2000. “The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits”. Journal of Behavioral DecisionMaking13(1):1-17.doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0771(200001/03)13:1<1::aidbdm333>3.0.co;2-s.
FRANK, R. H. 1988. Passions within reason: The strategic role of the emotions. New York: Norton.
GASKELL, George; Sally Stares; Agnes Allansdottir; Nick Allum; Paul Castro; Yilmaz Esmer; Claude Fischler; Jonathan Jackson; Nicole Kronberger; Jürgen Hampel; Niels Mejlgaard; Alex Quintanilha; Andu Rammer; Gemma Revuelta; Paul Stoneman; Helge Torgersen & Wolfgang Wagner. 2010. Europeans and biotechnology in 2010. Winds of change? A report to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
GELMAN, Susan A. 2004. “Psychological essentialism in children”. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 (9): 404-409. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.001.
GILOVICH, Thomas, Dale Griffin, & Daniel Kahneman, eds. 2002. Heuristics and biases. The pyschology of intuitive judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
HASELTON, M. G., & D. M. Buss. 2000. “Error management theory: A new perspective on biases in cross-sex mind reading”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78 (1): 81-91. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.78.1.81.
HASELTON, Martie G., & Timothy Ketelaar. 2006. “Irrational emotions or emotional wisdom? The evolutionary psychology of emotions and behavior”. In Hearts and minds: Affective influences on social cognition and behavior, edited by Joseph P. Forgas, 21-40. New York: Psychology Press.
HASELTON, Martie G.; David Nettle, & Paul W. Andrews. 2005. “The evolution of cognitive bias”. In The handbook of evolutionary psychology, edited by David M. Buss, 724-746. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
HEATH, Chip, Chris Bell, & Emily Sternberg. 2001. “Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81 (6): 1028-1041. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1028.
KAHAN, Dan M. 2008. “Two conceptions of emotion in risk regulation”. University of Pennsylvania Law Review 156: 741-766.
KAHNEMAN, Daniel. 2011. Thinking fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
KASS, Leon R. 1997. “The wisdom of repugnance”. New Republic 216 (22).
Kelly, Daniel. 2011. Yuck! The nature and moral significance of disgust. Cambridge: MIT Press.
LOEWENSTEIN, George F.; Elke U. Weber, Christopher K. Hsee & Ned Welch. 2001. “Risk as feelings”. Psychological Bulletin 127 (2): 267-286. doi: 10.1037/00332909.127.2.267.
NICHOLS, Shaun. 2002. “On The Genealogy Of Norms: A Case For The Role Of Emotion In Cultural Evolution”. Philosophy of Science 69 (2): 234-255.
PINKER, Steven. 1997. How the mind works. New York: Norton.
QAIM, Matin. 2010. “Benefits of genetically modified crops for the poor: household income, nutrition, and health”. New Biotechnology 27 (5): 552-557.
ROESER, Sabine. 2006. “The role of emotions in judging the moral acceptability of risks”. Safety Science 44 (8): 689-700.
ROESER, Sabine. 2010. “Emotional Reflection About Risks”. In Emotions and Risky Technologies, edited by Sabine Roeser, 231-244. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. ROESER, Sabine. 2011. “Nuclear Energy, Risk, and Emotions”. Philosophy &Technology 24 (2): 197-201. doi: 10.1007/s13347-011-0027-6.
SÉRALINI, Gilles-Eric; EmilieClair; RobinMesnage; SteeveGress; NicolasDefarge; Manuela Malatesta; Didier Hennequin & Joël Spiroux de Vendômois. 2012. “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize”. Food and Chemical Toxicology 50 (11): 4221-4231.
SLOVIC, Paul. 1987. “Perception of risk”. Science 236 (4799): 280-285. doi: 10.1126/ science.3563507.
SLOVIC, Paul; Melissa L. Finucane; Ellen Peters & Donald G. MacGregor. 2002. “The affect heuristic”. In Heuristics and biases. The psychology of intuitive judgment, edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin and Daniel Kahneman, 397-
420. New York: Cambridge University Press.
SPERBER, Dan. 1996. Explaining culture. A naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell. Tooby, John and Leda Cosmides. 2008. “The evolutionary psychology of the emotions and their relationship to internal regulatory variables”. In Handbook of emotions, edited by Michael Lewis, Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones and Lisa Feldman Barrett, 114-137. New York: Guilford Press.
TVERSKY, A. & D. Kahneman. 1974. “Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases”. Science 185 (4157): 1124-1131.
TYBUR, Joshua M.; Debra Lieberman; Robert Kurzban & Peter DeScioli. 2013. “Disgust: Evolved Function and Structure”. Psychological Review 120 (1): 65-84. doi: 10.1037/a0030778.
VOSNIADOU, Stella. 2008. International handbook of research on conceptual change, Educational psychology handbook series. New York: Routledge.
ZAJONC, R. B. 1980. “Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences”. American Psychologist 35 (2): 151-175. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.35.2.151.
Blancke, S. (2015). Are Emotions Reliable Guides for Policy Making? An Evolutionary Approach. Azafea: Revista De Filosofía, 16, 39–56. https://doi.org/10.14201/13030
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
+
−