The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World

by Dalai Lama XIV

The more primitive areas of the brain evoking emotion, such as the amygdala, were built by nature to help us respond to threats or danger quickly and efficiently. So, when we encounter another person, the analysis of the individual that takes place in those areas of the brain is very crude, looking at only one trait—friend or foe, in-group or out-group. This happens very fast, in a fraction of a second. If categorized as “foe,” the danger alert is given, evoking negative emotions such as fear or hostility. In contrast, the “thinking” area of the brain, the neocortex, the area that produces our conscious thoughts, beliefs, ideas, reasoning, and so on, analyzes the person in more depth, assessing multiple traits and attributes of the individual, not just one. So, logically, this more complex analysis takes more time. Thus, by the time we are consciously aware of the person, and our stereotypes and beliefs about the person surface in our conscious mind, our emotional reaction has already occurred.