Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Trump is making bad COVID-19 decisions due to stress.


People make bad decisions when they are under stress.  Chronic stress impairs memory consolidation and retrieval.  Since we rely on our memories of past decisions - especially bad decisions - in order to make sure we don't make the same mistake again, this is a big problem. (Morgado, Sousa & Cerqueira, 2015)

Meanwhile any stress at all changes loss-aversion patterns and causes people to make riskier decisions  This is because when we are stressed, the portion of our brains responsible for long-term planning shuts down.  And the portions of the brain responsible for short-term gratification take over.  That's why we eat junk food when we are stressed. (Maier, Makwana & Hare, 2015)

Unfortunately, Trump's stress is leading him to make poor life threatening decisions - like lifting quarantine before COVID-19 infections have even peaked.  Talk about favoring immediate gratification over long term goals.  Does he really believe that restarting the economy is worth millions of American lives?  Maybe.  

Or maybe he just needs a Big Mac.


Morgado, P., Sousa, N., & Cerqueira, J.J. (2015) The Impact of Stress in Decision Making in the Context of Uncertainty.  Journal of Neuroscience Research.  Retrieved March 26, 2020, from

Maier, S., Makwana, A. & Hare, T. (2015, August 5)  Acute Stress Impairs Self-Control in Goal-Directed Choice by Altering Multiple Functional Connections within the Brain’s Decision Circuits. Neuron  Retrieved June 5 2018 from https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(15)00627-3

No comments: