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Discover Your Inner Genius: Behavior Economics, Social Media, and Problem Solving

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According to psychologytoday.com, feeling smart has been described as the “the logic in emotion and the emotion in logic.” [1] Eyal Winter, author of “Feeling Smart,” is an advocate for our ability to read into “our emotions [that] serve us, and further our interests,” and lends his insight based upon a “quiet revolution … over the past two decades in three important research disciplines: brain sciences, behavioral economics, and game theory.” [2] On the other hand authors, Dan Ariely and Daniel Kahneman have focused on “mental deviations that lead us away from rational decision making.” What are rational emotions? It’s the study of the relationship between emotions and rational behavior.

What is being smart? It’s a “belief that your skills and abilities can be developed over time,” which also involves not being limited to obstacles you face in life, and continue to grow, its okay to make mistakes. Creativity is a sign of intelligence, and for those of us who love to learn, science shows that those who “invest their time and effort in their intellect,” improve their cognitive abilities.

In fact researchers in the brain sciences have focused on just that, “how interwoven our minds actually are with the world around us.” Fred Gage, a neurobiologist argues that “subtle changes” can affect our experiences and affect our cognition of the world, and technology is helping us to focus more on our intuition, while “offload[ing] more and more of our cognitive processes,” to enable human thought to be geared with greater precision and power. This is not a new phenomenon, we have been evolving with technology, especially now with social media exposure, that has the capability of augmenting our experience of the world, thus affecting “our online and offline reality.” It has been viewed that as we are evolving the likelihood to “see our brains and the things in the outside world as independent components that may work in concert, but not as a functional unit,” has become more apparent, leading researchers to argue that if only we can “change the environment, change the brain, change the behavior.”

Intelligence takes skill, and when it comes to “measuring intelligence, there are a lot of skills that come into play – from problem solving and spatial ability, to emotional awareness and working memory.”  This includes your ability to read, analyze, and interpret data, which I’m sure is a common question among social media users, why exactly are we so affected by the images we see, and the information that is made known to us, how do we know what is real?

In technology, “artificial intelligence and machine learning tools,” seek to help us with how we interpret data and how that data is used to build insight, for our decision making, with a “goal of developing better business processes.” Why does this matter? When it comes to “behavior economics,” there is incentive to the discovery of the “effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural, and social factors” affecting our decision making. By these incentives, enhanced “corporate social responsibility,” involves the interplay of balancing truth from fiction necessary to building “better program, policies, and services,” and as a result “improving outcomes.” If our decisions affect how we feel, and if how we feel affects the emotional component of good decision making, than the information and resources provided to us should definitely be made with an awareness of how that in turn affects us, as people wanting to do the right thing, and avoid issues of mistrust, the end result matters.

According to Dan Ariely, humans make irrational decisions like this all the time.” Behavior economics is more than just “social psychology,” which is the study of how individuals are affected by other people, it instead focuses on why people are that way to begin with. Developing a deeper understanding of why people do things or say things in certain situations is a better way to measure the potential “social impact,” that implementing these connections will have on overall program success, in making us better decision makers, no matter what the issue is faced with.

When it comes to “behavior economics”:The main point is that people care, and with better self-control, we can avoid many problems associated with simple lack of awareness, in troubling times. Some of the best decisions that people make, are represented by their successes in life, why we focus so heavily on successful people. We tend to be drawn toward people who are doing the right things and sticking to what matters. There is so much inspiration in people who are able to defeat the odds and come out the better person in the long run, and we applaud them for that. Like most people, they struggle, and there’s a lot of learning that occurs along the road to success, and most positive discovery occurs through learning from one another first-hand, which I feel is the benefit of social media, seeing the results first-hand, and watching the progress overtime, to determine what is working for people and why.

When we say “people care,” movingworlds.org encourages us to focus on 4 elements, that include the circumstances and the elements being deciphered as playing a role in positive outcomes: Anchoring, Fundamental Attribution Error and Self-Serving Bias, Decoy Effect and Dominated Alternatives, and Framing:

How we value information matters, and when it comes to social media, we may look for factors like verified accounts, likes, number of followers, and content displays and comments, to determine which are the best accounts to follows when it comes to getting a gist of what the climate is socially regarding issues, and where to take a stand on topics, either being supported or not supported by heavily followed individuals, this all in turn affects how we ultimately make decisions for ourselves. Sometimes hearing from others helps like reading reviews, or hearing what others have to say by hashtag. Understanding bias, is one lesson in behavior economics, who do we rely upon in life and how can we avoid the pitfalls of misinformation and how that affects our decision making.

When we are more open to change and evolving as helpers in this world, we decidedly make things right when we can rely less on self-serving bias to dictate the direction of our decision making capabilities, and rely more on the science and function of a good decision made. Weighing factors is apart of our intellectual capacity as good decision makers, not being arbitrary. The next determinant factor for decision making discussed is the “decoy effect,” this affects how people choose between options, and when it comes to sources, displays matter, just as much as content on social media, people don’t have time to be fooled. So for example on social media there are certain standards being developed in presentation, that we recognize as being valued content for us to follow, this is to limit our tendency to be overdrawn to unreliable sources or figures and be more drawn to what is similarly approved by the majority, and popular, becomes the better basis. For what it’s worth, we all get distracted by misinformation or rumors, the point is to be able to within be able to make good choices, that serve you best and those around you, when determining what are the right themes to follow, concepts to pay attention to, and what stance to take on subjects to determine the worth of your attention to a figure or display of information, does it fulfill your expectations.

Meanwhile, “self-control,”is about: decision fatigue, mindless consumption, and confirmation bias. Decision Fatigue, most generally describes that over-inundated feeling we get from social media, when you remember less, and search more, and the less things process, the more confused you get. Its all about that tangential relationship between what you are reading, to what you are thinking, and hopefully once you get acquainted with how your mind works, being able to find more answers to problems, then encounter problems while trying to find your answers. This is likely to occur during moments of disagreement to what you are consuming, either it does not function to describe the points in your mind that you are struggling with assembling, but that you feel at a loss. This can occur when the information you have received is inadequate, instead of opening your mind up, leaves you feeling short handed, or not informed well. So keep going, read more, and do your research! There’s not one solution to feeling empty. Choose your sources well in life and learn to take things with a grain of salt, sometimes solution comes to us in the thinking and processing phases of being exposed to information, and its what you are left with either makes more or less sense to you after having read what you have chosen to read, that’s just my experience with assembly. For those of us struggling with self-control it has been recommended to “use alone time to think, prioritize, and plan, which reinforces self-control.”

Tips for Being Intellience by inc.com, include:

  • Be creative
  • It’s okay to be messy
  • It’s okay to be creative
  • Exercise self-control
  • Be yourself
  • It’s okay to be funny
  • Be open-minded
  • Know your limitations

The less things make sense in our minds, the worse the decisions we make are. Handle life in small doses, if we can’t first focus well on one thing at a time, then why bother multi-tasking and failing. Then there is mindless consumption, as the saying goes “out of sight out of mind,” ever notice that what becomes pressing in your mind, may be something that you are directly exposed to or focusing on, and in these articles studies have shown that the less we focus on the problem, the better chances we have for arriving to solution. For instance, when it comes to mindless consumption, in order to address a problem, you need to first understand the elements to a problem that need to be modified from access to others in a particular environment, especially if it leads others down the wrong paths in life.

Making healthier choices therefore is about what options you have available for thinking, if not already made available to you in the online universe. Change means more than addressing a problem, it’s also about helping others by bringing to their awareness alternatives for thinking, to better rationalize their own emotions concerning matters and how that affects how they view and interpret the world, and the ramifications for all those involved, what is stemming from what or who to blame. It is true that what you put into your dominant focus can skew how you view things happening in relationship to what you’ve been told, come to conclusions based upon your own sources in life, to which things don’t become true until they fall more in alignment with what you think, which can be a reasonable or unreasonable basis, for deciding that things are only true when things happen in this way, to confirm a belief.

So what are your beliefs and why, and how do your beliefs influence others for better or worse, or affect the dominant force, figure, or belief, you seek to make true and confirm in your mind? How much energy should you or others, move towards making a belief true, if it presents more risks than benefits, when it comes to arriving to more positive solutions, without trying to create error in justification of opinions alone held. Figure that out first. Making healthier decisions for ourselves, would mean to not just rely on what’s available and in front of us, and be more frugal, less compulsive consumers, during times of need. Then there is “confirmation bias,” which goes to the fact we discussed earlier of “reinforc[ing] [one’s] own existing beliefs,” its not god who has punished you, for not understanding or being affecting by situations in life, its about what you believe, and sometimes the gears for your decision making skills, will not fall in alignment to the knee jerk reactions of others relying on other “religious beliefs,” think in a way that works for you. -So no matter how those ideas are established, come up with a system for making your own rules in life, follow basic moral principles, and always be honest, that’s the surest path, to making more sound decisions in the future. Doing what makes sense, is to focus on what’s approved, and what is likeable about us and others, and that in turn affects how we feel and the decisions we make moving forward. A problem without solution, is simply about a matter of what we do, to evolve.

Game Theory is “the study of interactive decisions,” describing our interactions as humans, social creatures, “who interact with their environments.” This theory “enables us to understand the roles that emotions and other behavioral characteristics have within a context of social interaction.” [4] When our critical mode of thinking is geared by our exposure this can in turn affect “how we order things in our lives. [and] how we engineer relationships,” and most of all “how we address problems in our society.” Game theory refers to the “possible interactions between two or more Rational Agents,” what defines a rational agent. A “Rational Agent,” is one who holds the same or similar beliefs, and this can occur when we are informed equally and have access to the same information, such as what social media provides, an open-ended network of ideas and exposures, from which a feeling or idea can be derived from exposure to. How else would you know how others are doing had you not heard from them, doesn’t not hearing from others contribute to so much unnecessary worry in life.

If the goal of participation and interaction online is to feel well, and to achieve a sense of peace from being exposed to one another, then that’s the end goal, being able to achieve, feel lifted, not downtrodden about life, or deflated, so to speak. You would think that participation includes possessing an account and sharing online, but we forget that some just read, so the pressure doesn’t go both ways when it comes to accountability, just what is present online, gets used to decipher fact from fiction, and that’s the problem. What you think when you hear or see something, will not always be the same as what another hears or thinks, but if the tendency is geared toward arriving to negatives, then that’s how the information will be interpreted, until a negative point of interests is arrived to, and anything that can support that derivative of those deductions, meaning how a person looks, sounds, what they’re wearing, and who they are talking to, there is no joy, in any element of harm, and when trying to lighten up a conversation on violence, gun violence, sexuality, and age, sometimes we rely on presenting our best selves to address discomfort.

The main lesson is to learn to separate yourself from any “game” in life, or series of understandings, or misunderstandings about life, and how things occur, may have occurred, or unravel the mystery behind the elements of problems, contributory, and preventable basis for choices made by others, which can only be determined based upon what a person says is their basis for a decision made, without alluding to people as being bases. Without a person admitting to what they think guiding their negative impulse toward a person or group of persons in life. If we don’t know that much about life, then we can’t assume what is influencing the decisions of others, foul or for social good. Be creative.

For example, when thinking about life, observe what you can, that doesn’t mean that your exposures in life, hold you responsible for what you assemble in your mind to be true about people, what they have said, or what images they have shown. Like all Instagrams, its just a summary of that persons reactions and informations known to them at that point in time, and to all those who have witnessed or been influenced by those periods in time, or wellness or sickness, we all endure changes in life that subject us to being affected by the wellness of others, lacking, or apparent, that will never change about human nature. Its about what ideas you are willing to accept, and what you stay patient to, either expecting a certain wellness achieved and present, or wrongfully assume someone is not well by their own doing, or someone else’s.

Whenever there is a fight over influence, it’s about what’s working and what’s not working, so for anyone to establish an element or person is not to be included to the elements of the game of “references” working for everyone, is to not only not include them for reference for solution, but also to declare someone is not a member of the solution that is present and working in the minds of others. How can you discriminate a person from solution, if you are using them as an element to dictate a series of themes or understanding to a game of “insult” you seek to rise to the towers of our mind for reference. We are all capable of being advisors in life, based upon our life experiences, either become more wise or knowledgeable of how to get out of problems, deficits, and disabilities in life, what you share matters. This is what we mean in keeping an open mind. People arrive to issues, problems, blogs, celebrity stories, and the news in general at different periods in their lives and based upon their age will either have a solid understanding of how much to take in and be affected by what they hear or be destroyed completely inside upon hearing something that upsets them, or is going on in the world. It’s okay to be at different phases in life, more or less affected and in the know of what’s going on in the world and who to know for that matter. Different people and different things that people have to say will work for some of us, we can’t all be dependent on the same doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists in life, that’s why there are many. So knowing that, get it out of your head that you are supposed to be okay with things that you are not okay with, and it’s okay to not be okay when others are okay, you are allowed that breathing room in life, to process. I’ve been to dozens of psychiatrists and therapists throughout my time as a law student, and it seems things only got better with a change in medication, and a willingness on my part to work through some of my obstacles out loud through blogging, journaling, keeping a daily notebook, and actually telling my doctor I think this, and hear what they have to say about what I was thinking, 100% of the time, if about another, would call it delusion. You will feel threatened in life and insecure, if you keep your problems to yourself, and that’s half the battle with branching out in life, keeping to yourself, keeps you from hearing from others and feeling apart of. There’s no such thing as one person knowing everything, we all have limitations in life, so don’t be intimidated by people, no matter whether you’re in a circle, in a spotlight, isolated, or in a leadership position, you won’t know where you are in life, if you keep allowing yourself to feel small. Intelligence is a pathway toward feeling big again, independent, and not reliant on others for affirmations. It’s how you get your strength back, there’s so much power in being able to hold opinions yourself, know that.

To me being smart is staying well in spite of the obstacles, and talking to therapists and psychiatrists whenever I feel like there is some outside force trying to convince me that things are a way they are not. So how best to help others? We are all capable of being smart and feeling smart, it’s the reinforcement and encouragement that we don’t always get that leaves us feeling at a loss. It’s about what you’re focused on, so create better habits in thinking, and make it a point to study more. Those who achieve the most intelligence, never stop learning, “they push and challenge themselves daily.” Stay motivated and enrich your mind through reading, stimulate your mind, and it’s okay to be innovative. So many times we are limited by our fears in life, too shy or embarrassed to graze new ground, and just put our thoughts out there, it’s okay to be “inventive and experimental,” especially online. People are smarter than you think and you’d be surprised how many are willing to work on their smarts with you, especially when it comes to figuring out problems and identifying issues, hence the fascination with mental health issues these days, seems like there are more problems than we can include in one post that could go wrong with our thinking. You’re smarter than you think and while most of us only hear this from our parents, its true, there’s always an opportunity to learn, so don’t let your competitive edge in life, keep you from exposing yourself to what others have to say, listen to that Ted Talk, read that Article, it’s okay, you are always free to think what you want, and question your sources, the point is to get your mind working, and to improve your ability to communicate. Some of the smartest people communicate well and ask good questions, so be one of them. In the wise words of Lolly Daskal in inc.com, “The future you want is created by what you do. Smart people make the most of today.”

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