Our Emotional Opinions

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How quickly do we form opinions when responding to survey questions? Something with agree or disagree questions like: “I think euthanasia is an acceptable course of action” or “I think the growing emancipation of women is a negative trend.”

While you probably think that you read the question, think about what it means, think about your opinion on the issue, and then arrive at a response, a new study implies that your answer is basically formed once you think you see where the statement is going. As a report in Science Daily puts it, “[I]nstead of reading carefully before forming an opinion, the brain responds intuitively within a mere 200 milliseconds of having more or less grasped what the sentence fragment read so far is suggesting.” Emphasis added.

Here’s the experiment:

In the EEG experiment, two groups of participants with diametrically opposed value systems (orthodox Christian versus non-Christian) assessed statements on a scale ranging from ‘agree’ to ‘disagree’. The statements had been selected to evoke highly different responses from the two groups. Participants’ brain responses were measured as they read the questions (before actually answering them) by means of electroencephalography (EEG, ‘brain waves’). As it turned out, the brain’s response varied depending on whether the statement agreed or clashed with the reader’s value system.

Words indicating that the sentence would most likely be at odds with the person’s core beliefs (such as ‘I find euthanasia an acceptable …’ for strict Christian respondents) evoked two characteristic EEG brain waves: the LPP effect (‘Late Positive Potential’) and the N400 effect. The LPP brain wave signifies an emotional response, evoked in previous studies mainly by means of emotionally charged pictures. The N400 effect is a well-known brain response to an unlikely or impossible meaning (for example, ‘I’m drinking a pizza’). Unlike previous studies, the effect here was determined by the participant’s political and ethical beliefs: statements that were entirely acceptable to one participant proved problematic for others, evoking a strong emotional response. This effect of personal value systems had never been identified before.

So, when it comes to value-related statements, our brains react essentially instantaneously — before any rational thought could possibly occur. Something to think about the next time you’re feeling secure that your opinion on abortion, gay marriage, stem cells, etc. is grounded in pure rationality.

A pre-publication version of the paper, “Right or Wrong? The brain’s fast response to morally objectionable statements” (from Psychological Science), can be downloaded by clicking here (PDF).