Human behaviour is complicated

The behaviour of humans and other organisms is a complex package.

The behaviour you choose is a choice, or a decision. Or is it really so deliberate after all?

Humans make only a fraction of their decisions consciously, so can we say that behaviour is chosen and deliberate? It can be deliberate, we just don't know it, because system two as Daniel Kahneman came to describe the conscious part of our thinking doesn't have time to register the thought. System one is the unconscious.

Can we consciously decide our behaviour? Yes and no. There are many actions that we can control at will, on the other hand there are those that we can control in the short term, such as holding our breath. And then there are many actions that are beyond our control.

We need to be clear about the fact that unconscious decisions and choices are decisions just as much as deliberate and conscious ones. What makes classification or valuation problematic is the difference in visibility and the assumption of human deliberation and rationality.

The assumption of human prudence and a continuous series of rational decisions confuses the deck and gets many things knotted up. Quite a lot is known about human behaviour, but how and why certain behaviours occur is more difficult to understand.

Rationality is thought to mean well-considered and well-informed decisions, but in reality, full human rationality is a myth and a false narrative. Why do we need an unconscious system at all? The explanation is perhaps surprisingly simple: to run and maintain life functions.

Without an autonomic system, that is, one that is controlled and decided by the brain, no creature would survive. But why not? Anyone can try to keep the heart beating by force of will, can they? Probably not, because it is not within the reach of the voluntary system. Holding our breath does not stop the heart, we cannot hold our breath for long before we feel suffocated or drowning and the brain forces us to start breathing.

In the example above, it is of course a matter of self-protection, which we cannot easily control consciously. Decision-making is therefore much more than thinking things through and listing the pros and cons.

Controlling behaviour through deliberate decisions is difficult, sometimes impossible, because we cannot consciously control all aspects of our body, even if we would like to. Changing behaviour is difficult for the reason described above, it is not impossible, but very demanding, especially into direction very different from the existing one.

Behaviour is a complex thing

The behaviour of living beings is a complex thing. Sure, we now know a thing or two from numerous studies, but much remains unclear and speculative.

What is clear, however, is that behaviour, and therefore decisions, are governed and dictated by a multitude of needs. They all share a common need for energy, without which the engine, the heart, would stop pumping. The only source of energy is food, humans cannot directly use the sun's radiant energy to power the machinery.

The food debate is then a separate issue, but whatever we choose to eat, it must be nutritious and contain enough of the nutrients that are important to us. All in all, we are strongly driven by our need for nutrition, because without it we would not survive.

What we choose to eat is not a one-size-fits-all affair. Humans are capable of consuming a huge variety of food, so there is plenty of choice, and it should be noted that humans are culinary superior to other animals. Humans can and do use by far the largest variety of nutrients of any animal, and have developed a large number of forms of nutrition that are not found in nature as such, such as sweets and various food preparation chemicals, without making any distinction.

It should be noted that the need and desire of creatures to survive is so great that they can and are willing to do anything for it. This is not just about getting food, but can also be about defending oneself from an external threat. Sometimes the so-called primary survival instinct is called the lizard brain, although there is no such thing. Every creature has a defence mechanism that is activated when needed, whether it is related to lizards.

It has to be said that one desperate, hungry or threatened enough is a dangerous being for those who get in its way. Driven by instinct and compulsion, a person's decision-making is very straightforward, leaving little room for reflection and wasting energy, especially if hunger twists the stomach. This is the case quick snacks are basically made for, even though nutritionally they are something more than health bombs.

So, in a moment of need, you act, you don't think.

How you act in the moment of need and what the outcome is depends a lot on your experience base, the less experience you have with the situation, the more haphazardly you act. This is the main reason for emergency personnel to practice emergency situations, so that in the real world, you know what to do and how to do it. We can usually handle a tight situation, but we take huge risks if we have not practised or thought about how best to act in the situation.

There's a big difference between working on instinct and working on memory. It should be noted that everything in life is pretty much based on practice and repetition, the more practice and repetition you have, the more you know and master.

Training is about shaping the brain's memory and control system so that it becomes better at controlling the musculature and nervous system. Control means the smooth execution of a movement, such as a drummer playing a march uses his wrists in a relaxed manner to move the sticks, a beginner uses half of his arm and can't relax his arm, so it tires out quickly.