The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors

by Brian King

Suppose we are generally indifferent about Coke or Pepsi, but we have slightly better past experiences with Coke. That little bit of edge becomes amplified when we are stressed, increasing the likelihood that we will go with our favorite. This is an adaptive mechanism that helps our brain make a tough choice under pressure. If running and fighting are relatively similar in their potential value, but one has a slight advantage over the other, this mechanism helps make sure we pick our best possible option, even when our conscious mind would say, “Ah, whatever.” This means that when we are in a stressed state and navigating through the world, any time we encounter an opportunity to do something our brain prefers, we are more likely to do it. It probably has absolutely nothing to do with alleviating our stress, but the brain doesn’t know that. All it knows is that we are stressed and that a chocolate chunk cookie would taste really damn good right about now.