Everything we see goes from the optic nerve to a part of the brain called the amygdala before it goes anywhere else.
The amygdala deals with emotional responses. It’s one of the oldest parts of the human brain and developed thousands of years before the prefrontal cortex (which deals with rational thought).
Oh dear, here comes a sabre-tooth tiger…
Our brains work this way because, back in olden times, we often needed to make an immediate ‘fight or flight’ decision. Our brains had to decided whether or not to flood the body with adrenalin and endorphins in order to survive from whatever was trying to eat us.
Nowadays not much is trying to eat us. But our brains still work in the same way. Which means we process information emotionally first, and rationally second.
Powerful emotions
Not only do we process information emotionally and sub-consciously first, it can actually be more sophisticated and powerful than rational, conscious processing.
That’s because emotional thinking comes to a decision based on all of our past experiences – thousands upon thousands of moments that make up our life’s wisdom, expressed as a single, near-instant feeling.
Whereas rational thinking can only hold 5 - 9 different pieces of information at any one time.
It’s why, in an area that we’re fairly expert in, our gut instinct can be so powerful – and so often right.
So when, as professional fundraising marketing advertising brand charity experts, we’re considering a fundraising idea or piece of creative, we should trust our ‘gut feel’ more often.
In other words, to be good... takes guts.
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