why are emotions so much stronger than thought?

Question

We see emotions over power thought all the time, in muder cases, suicide, assault, and bassically all illogical choices we make. Why are they so powerfull though? I just don't get it, our brain controlls are emotions so why can't it stop them? People do bad things without any thought all the time, just acting on pure hate or jelousy, or some other emotion. When it comes time for me to make decsions, I always try to use reason and take the effects of all my choices into consideration before acting. Sometimes I fail to do this though because my emotions were to powerfull, then I find myself in deep water, and only after can I realize the choice was so stupid and illogical. I think humans give themselves to much credit.

Emotions don't come from your heart, they come from the brain, you heart pumps blood through your body, thats about it.

My belief is to think before you act, but sometimes you just don't and can't. It doesn't depends on your belief. That might make a difference on how hard you try to prevent emotions from taking over, but cannot stop them.

Answer 1

thought (thôt)
n.
1. The act or the process of thinking; cogitation.
2. A product of thinking, such as an idea.
3. The faculty of thinking or reasoning.
from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/thought

e·mo·tion (-mshn)
n.
An intense mental state that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes.
from the same source

Thought, being limited to the brain (cognitive), and emotion, arising from the brain and filtering into the body (physiological), are two completely different things. Thought is passive, emotion is not. Take, umm, fear, for instance...fear makes your heat beat faster, your breath become rapid, you can break out in a cold sweat, tremble, feel faint, sick to your stomach. Thats a lot happening to yoru entire body at the same moment...but, think about a fear? Its not the same, you might remember a scary movie, or a time you were afreaid of something. The brain might "spark" emotion, but then the body takesover and runs with it.

Answer 2

Interesting question. Thoughts & emotions both come from the mind, I suppose the main difference is that thoughts stay in the mind & emotions tend to overtake the rest of the body as well. Because they take on a physical aspect they are stronger because they actually affect your actions. While thoughts can affect your actions as well, they are more subtle. If you just think something, you are not compelled to act on it. Once you have feelings about it (be they anger, sorrow etc) & they start to manifest themselves physically (sweat, tears, trembling, heart racing etc) you are more compelled to act. You can become overwhelmed. People say that feelings come from the "heart" but they mean the figurative heart not the literal organ that pumps blood. I suppose you could say the mind has two sides: the side that reasons -- the seat of thought & the side that feels -- the home of emotion. Emotion is stronger because it affects the senses and we are sensory animals after all.

Answer 3

I believe that the primary force behind emotions is hormones. At the least, hormones certainly accompany emotions. They are essentially chemical responses to someones environment. Adrenaline, testosterone, progresterone, HGH, etc are all wickedly powerful. Heck, take a man/woman and give them the alternate gender hormone and their body physically changes.

However, the interesting thing is that emotions/feelings are not always more powerful than thoughts. Life is full of examples of the power of the mind. Many people practice mind over matter and subject themselves to great pain, stress, endurance. Some people have thought driven illnesses such as bulemia which cause them to override the feeling of hunger purely by thought. Someone can be terrified of heights yet still go skydiving by the power of the mind. As i type i just keep thinking of more examples, but i am pretty sure you thought of some as well.

So, emotions may rule us on average, but the mind can overpower them most of the time.

P.S. Actually, that impresses me that the mind is so powerful, since I started out typing this message believing that hormones were incredibly powerful.

Answer 4

There is an action called "reflex action" in which action is taken instantaneously following a thought . ( if you suddenly see a snake you instantly run!) . There is no time delay in action. Otherwise, generally an action follows after the mind has analysed a thought... its consequences, its demands.

I feel emotion tends to cover the thoughts or better cloud the thoughts so that actions get disoriented . One cannot , always , look at the negative sides of the emotions. On the positive side emotions lead to empathy, love strong bond .....

People are predisposed ... heart over the head or head over the heart. Like the body chemistry these are gene coded.

Answer 5

No, I don't. I do feel like it's a powerful emotion, but I can think of stronger ones. Look how much has been done with love, loyalty, or hate as a driving force. Jealousy has not been the drive for wars, holocausts, rights' movements, missions, churches...or much of anything but self loathing.

Answer 6

To me emotions are thoght. They are thoughts about things that affect us in a certain "strong" manner. Usually causing changes on body chemistry in one form or another such as rapid heart beat, sweating, adrenaline rush, etc. If somebody points a gun at you and you also have a gun, your first instinct or thought is to "rapidly pull the trigger" as fast as you can to get the "jump on them before they shoot you first". However training tells us that you have to take the minute extra amount of time to be calm enough to "aim" the gun first as otherwise you will almost surely miss and that wasted firing gives them time to shoot you. That is a case of thought and emotions working directly together with you remaining in control of your emotions. They are totally connected regardless of emotion, but can also be controlled through thought. That is why therapy is used for folks with bad emotions such as depression, anxiety, etc. By talking it out and "thinking" about that is causing all this (your negative thoughts) you are able to see through them and learn to think in a more positive manner when this happens again. I remember the first motorcycle I bought in the 70's. I read through the owners manual as it was brand new and wanted to know all about it. There was a section on what to do if a tire blows out. Said that if the front tire blows out NOT to jam on the brakes as that would put you out of control. Just to lean backwards and pull back on the handle bars and let off the gas. Then when the bike slows down enough "ease" on the brake and pull off the road. Well about 2 weeks after I bought it and traveling around 55 miles an hour the front tire "suddently" blew out and went flat. The handlebars started violently shaking and while my first instinct was to grab the brake and try and stop as fast as I could, my mind flashed instantly back to the section in the manual that told me NOT to do that. I "forced" myself to not brake, pull back on the handlebars and then slowly come to a stop on the shoulder of the road. Either outcome would have been my mind and emotions tied up together. However the one I "chose" was the one that probably saved my hide! This same applies to practically all emotions as you are actually "choosing" to be mad, sad, happy, or whatever based on your thoughts.

Answer 7

I think it stems from our evolution. We are pre-programmed with the "fight or flight" reaction to certain situations. Thinking has an insignificant role in this reaction. We are pre-programmed with other stimuli as well. Take for example the drive to procreate. This is a large reason men cheat on partners, we are by nature and survival prediposed to produce as many off spring as possible. This is perhaps why, when under the influence of alcohol, this need to procreate is heightened as alcohol wears down our thought process and the animal instincts gain strength.

Answer 8

first off, its our belief system that dictates all.
what we believe this or that to be, and hold dear.
That will have direct impact on how we feel in certain circumstances.

If your belief system tells you a girl who cheats is not worth having her, and its beter to get rid of her, then shoul she cheat, you can easily move on.
However, if you believe that a man and a woman should be together for ever nomatter what, then when she does something bad -- or he does something bad -- then youre going to allow that to have more of an impact on you then the prior

Someone hits you.
if youre belief system tells you that you should turn the other cheek, well then thats what you will do if you truly believe that.
However if you believe that getting popped in the smacker and not doing someting makes you a chump, well then you are going to either burst out at the person who did it, or feel bad for not bursting out.

Thats why some people are able to remain mor ein self control then others. Becuase for some people, judging a situation is more important than reacting to it on impulse.
Thats part of someones belief system

Ever hear of people wanting, striving to 'find themselves'
well, just define what you want to stand for.
A very clear system of beliefs will help one find themself, and how they will react or not react in given situations.

Case in point...arent those that act out on impulse in the worst way those without a defined system of beliefs?

Answer 9

emotions are stronger than thought because unlike the latter, we cannot control how we feel deep down and alas, it leads to us expressing anger, hurt, bitterness, sadness. thoughts are lesser of the two because to me, although it evokes a person's feelings, its impact is not as huge and significant in comparison.
emotions on the other hand can be seen as psychological almost even raw, seeing as the way we feel and the way we convey our feelings often determine how we react and respond to certain situations and how we perceive others. especially those we come in contact with throughout our lives.

Answer 10

I don't think you'll get the real answer here. But my """feeling""" about it is that we feel first, then think second, if at all. Some people place a high premium on applying thought to situations, while some unashamedly just go with their feeling.

But feelings and intuition get there first, to your registration centers, before deliberate thought does. i think that's why so much is done in our world that is thoughtless, and can be blamed on feelings.