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A recent blog post at New York Magazine's Science of Us discusses research on how self-location (whether you consider yourself more located in your heart or your brain) can reveal important personality characteristics. Importantly, a recent study published by Adam, Obodaru, and Galinsky (2015), found that whether you consider yourself a heart-locator or a brain-locator has consequential downstream effects as well. Specifically, the researchers found that the location of your self-essence affects how you define the start and end of life and can determine what charities you are most willing to donate time and money to (e.g., if you are a brain-locator you are more likely to support Alzheimer's research than the American Heart Association).
These findings have an interesting implication for judgment and decision-making. Specifically, they suggest that reliance on System 1 (our automatic, emotion-based responses) versus System 2 (our more deliberate, rule-based responses) can be different at the individual-level. This means that how much weight a person puts into their System 1 response (emotions) can be predicted by whether they are a heart-locator or a brain-locator. Unsurprisingly, individuals who are heart-locators are more likely to rely on their emotions when making decisions, while brain-locators are more likely to rely on reason (see: Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). While we all have both System 1 and System 2 responses, and this can be affected by external factors, it's also interesting that a simple dichotomy of self-location can identify an internal factor that makes an individual more or less likely to rely on System 1. As Christian Jarrett points out in his blog post: you can learn a lot about a person and how they will respond to things just by asking them if they feel more located in their hearts or their minds.
These findings have an interesting implication for judgment and decision-making. Specifically, they suggest that reliance on System 1 (our automatic, emotion-based responses) versus System 2 (our more deliberate, rule-based responses) can be different at the individual-level. This means that how much weight a person puts into their System 1 response (emotions) can be predicted by whether they are a heart-locator or a brain-locator. Unsurprisingly, individuals who are heart-locators are more likely to rely on their emotions when making decisions, while brain-locators are more likely to rely on reason (see: Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). While we all have both System 1 and System 2 responses, and this can be affected by external factors, it's also interesting that a simple dichotomy of self-location can identify an internal factor that makes an individual more or less likely to rely on System 1. As Christian Jarrett points out in his blog post: you can learn a lot about a person and how they will respond to things just by asking them if they feel more located in their hearts or their minds.
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