WHAT DOES GOD DO TO YOUR BRAIN?
As we have argued throughout this book, most Americans have greatly benefited from their personal relationships with religion, spirituality, and God. But when it comes to sharing our religious beliefs with others, certain problems may arise, especially if we want them to embrace our spiritual points of view. If we use our powers of persuasion to reach a general consensus of belief—which, from an evolutionary point of view, is essential for social cooperation—we are bound to create conflicts with those who hold different religious beliefs.
The culprit is not religion per se, but what our brain is biologically inclined to do when we encounter people who embrace different visions of “truth.” One part wants to reject opposing ideas, while another part tries to understand, cooperate, and compromise. In essence, we all have two brains—one selfish and suspicious, another open- minded and kind. Since we live in a world filled with uncertainties, both brains are constantly on the alert.
The culprit is not religion per se, but what our brain is biologically inclined to do when we encounter people who embrace different visions of “truth.” One part wants to reject opposing ideas, while another part tries to understand, cooperate, and compromise. In essence, we all have two brains—one selfish and suspicious, another open- minded and kind. Since we live in a world filled with uncertainties, both brains are constantly on the alert.
THE TWO WOLVES
Once upon a time, or so the Cherokee legend goes, a young Indian boy received a beautiful drum as a gift. When his best friend saw it, he asked if he could play with it, but the boy felt torn. He didn’t want to share his new present, so he angrily told his friend, “No!” His friend ran away, and the boy sat down on a rock by the stream to contemplate his dilemma. He hated the fact that he had hurt his friend’s feelings, but the drum was too precious to share. In his quandary, he went to his grandfather for advice.
The elder listened quietly and then replied. “I often feel as though there are two wolves fighting inside me. One is mean and greedy and full of arrogance and pride, but the other is peaceful and generous. All the time they are struggling, and you, my boy, have those same two wolves inside of you.”
“Which one will win?” asked the boy.
The elder smiled and said, “The one you feed.”
We all harbor a pack of neurological wolves in our brain. The old ones reside in the limbic system, and they are filled with aggression and fear. They’re fast, efficient, and potentially deadly, and they’ve been running the show for 150 million years. The younger ones reside in our frontal lobes and anterior cingulate, where empathy, reason, logic, and compassion reside. These pups are playful and imaginative, but they are also neurologically vulnerable and slow when compared to the activity in the emotional parts of the brain.
So, when it comes to making sophisticated moral decisions, which one will win? The selfish brain or the cooperative one? Again, as with the two wolves, it depends on the one you feed. If you allow anger and fear to dominate, you will lose the neurological ability to think logically and act compassionately toward others. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find peace and serenity if your mind is preoccupied by negative, anxious, or hateful thoughts.
Excessive anger or fear can permanently disrupt many structures and functions in both your body and your brain. These destructive emotions interfere with memory storage and cognitive accuracy, which, in turn, will disrupt our ability to properly evaluate and respond to social situations.1 Anger makes people indiscriminately punitive, blameful, pessimistic, and unilaterally careless in their logic and reasoning skills.2 Furthermore, anger encourages your brain to defend your beliefs—be they right or wrong—and when this happens, you’ll be more likely to feel prejudice toward others.3 You’ll inaccurately perceive anger in other people’s faces,4 and this will increase your own distrust and fear. It’s an insidious process that feeds on itself, and it can influence your behavior for very long periods of time.5 Eventually, it will even damage important structures in your brain.
Nor is it good for your heart. Regardless of your age, gender, or ethnicity—anger, cynicism, hostility, and defensiveness will increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular problems.6 What makes anger particularly dangerous is that it blinds you to the fact that you’re even angry; thus, it gives you a false sense of certainty, confidence, and optimism.7
When people use their religion or politics—or even humor or teasing8—as a weapon to aggressively disparage others who embrace different beliefs, they unwittingly stimulate the other person’s brain to retaliate with similar aggression. Aggression and hostility shut down activity in the anterior cingulate and striatum—the two key areas of the brain that control anger and fear—and when this occurs, the amygdale takes over, generating a “fight or flight” response that is spread through every other part of the brain.9
In the evidence we’ve cited throughout this book, it is obvious that most forms of spiritual contemplation lead to a healthier brain, and most likely to a healthier society as well. But you must exercise that brain by exposing yourself to new ideas. Think about God and spirituality in different ways, as deeply as you can, and you will learn to appreciate the diversity, fallibility, and mystery of human beliefs.
But no matter how open- minded you become, and no matter how tolerant or compassionate you think you are, there will always remain the remnants of a neurological exclusiveness and fundamentalism in your brain—a wolf that will respond with fear and anger to all that is different and new. The struggle between good and bad, between tolerance and intolerance, between love and hate, is the personal responsibility of every individual on this planet. The question remains: Which wolf will you feed, and which wolf will you tame?
1. Davidson RJ, Lewis DA, Alloy LB, Amaral DG, Bush G, Cohen JD, Drevets WC, Farah MJ, Kagan J, McClelland JL, Nolen Hoeksema S, Peterson BS. Neural and behavioral substrates of mood and mood regulation, Biol Psychiatry, 2002 Sep 15;52(6):478–502.
2. For the most comprehensive overview of anger published to date, see Lerner JS, Tiedens LZ. Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition. J Behavioral Decision Making. 2006:19: 115–137. Tiedens LZ, Linton S. Judgment under emotional certainty and uncertainty: the effects of specific emotions on information processing. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2001 Dec;81(6):973–88. Lerner JS, Goldberg JH, Tetlock PE. Sober second thought: the effects of accountability, anger and authoritarianism on attributions of responsibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 1998;24(6), 563–74.
3. Maner JK, Kenrick DT, Becker DV, Robertson TE, Hofer B, Neuberg SL, Delton AW, Butner J, Schaller M. Functional projection: how fundamental social motives can bias interpersonal perception. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2005 Jan;88(1):63–78.
4. Hugenberg K, Bodenhausen GV. Facing prejudice: implicit prejudice and the perception of facial threat. Psychol Sci. 2003 Nov;14(6):640–3.
5. Lerner JS, Keltner D. Fear, anger, and risk. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2001 Jul;81(1):146–59.
6. Thomas KS, Nelesen RA, Dimsdale JE. Relationships between hostility, anger expression, and blood pressure dipping in an ethnically diverse sample. Psychosom Med. 2004 May–Jun;66(3):298–304.
Chang PP, Ford DE, Meoni LA, Wang NY, Klag MJ. Anger in young men and subsequent premature cardiovascular disease. Arch Intern Med 2002;162:901–6.
Gallacher JE, Yarnell JW, Sweetnam PM, Elwood PC, Stansfeld SA. Anger and incident heart disease in the caerphilly study. Psychosom Med. 1999 Jul– Aug;61(4):446–53.
Bongard S, al’Absi M, Lovallo WR. Interactive effects of trait hostility and anger expression on cardiovascular reactivity in young men. Int J Psychophysiol. 1998 Mar;28(2):181–91.
Shapiro D, Goldstein IB, Jamner LD. Effects of cynical hostility, anger out, anxiety, and defensiveness on ambulatory blood pressure in black and white college students. Psychosom Med. 1996 Jul–Aug;58(4):354–64.
Shapiro D, Goldstein IB, Jamner LD. Effects of anger/hostility, defensiveness, gender, and family history of hypertension on cardiovascular reactivity. Psychophysiology. 1995 Sep;32(5):425–35.
7. Lerner JS, Tiedens LZ. Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition. J Behavioral Decision Making,. 2006:19: 115–137.
8. Anderson CA, Carnagey NL, Eubanks J. Exposure to violent media: the effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003 May;84(5):960–71.
Warm TR. The role of teasing in development and vice versa. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1997 Apr;18(2):97–101.
Ueno Y. [The relation between the attitude toward humor, aggression and altruism] Shinrigaku Kenkyu. 1993 Oct;64(4):247–54.
Prerost FJ. Locus of control and the aggression inhibiting effects of aggressive mhumor appreciation. J Pers Assess. 1983 Jun;47(3):294–9.
Sinnott JD, Ross BM. Comparison of aggression and incongruity as factors in children’s judgments of humor. J Genet Psychol. 1976 Jun;128(2d Half): 241–9.
9. Beaver JD, Lawrence AD, Passamonti L, Calder AJ. Appetitive motivation predicts the neural response to facial signals of aggression. J Neurosci. 2008 Mar 12;28(11):2719–25.
The elder listened quietly and then replied. “I often feel as though there are two wolves fighting inside me. One is mean and greedy and full of arrogance and pride, but the other is peaceful and generous. All the time they are struggling, and you, my boy, have those same two wolves inside of you.”
“Which one will win?” asked the boy.
The elder smiled and said, “The one you feed.”
We all harbor a pack of neurological wolves in our brain. The old ones reside in the limbic system, and they are filled with aggression and fear. They’re fast, efficient, and potentially deadly, and they’ve been running the show for 150 million years. The younger ones reside in our frontal lobes and anterior cingulate, where empathy, reason, logic, and compassion reside. These pups are playful and imaginative, but they are also neurologically vulnerable and slow when compared to the activity in the emotional parts of the brain.
So, when it comes to making sophisticated moral decisions, which one will win? The selfish brain or the cooperative one? Again, as with the two wolves, it depends on the one you feed. If you allow anger and fear to dominate, you will lose the neurological ability to think logically and act compassionately toward others. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find peace and serenity if your mind is preoccupied by negative, anxious, or hateful thoughts.
Excessive anger or fear can permanently disrupt many structures and functions in both your body and your brain. These destructive emotions interfere with memory storage and cognitive accuracy, which, in turn, will disrupt our ability to properly evaluate and respond to social situations.1 Anger makes people indiscriminately punitive, blameful, pessimistic, and unilaterally careless in their logic and reasoning skills.2 Furthermore, anger encourages your brain to defend your beliefs—be they right or wrong—and when this happens, you’ll be more likely to feel prejudice toward others.3 You’ll inaccurately perceive anger in other people’s faces,4 and this will increase your own distrust and fear. It’s an insidious process that feeds on itself, and it can influence your behavior for very long periods of time.5 Eventually, it will even damage important structures in your brain.
Nor is it good for your heart. Regardless of your age, gender, or ethnicity—anger, cynicism, hostility, and defensiveness will increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular problems.6 What makes anger particularly dangerous is that it blinds you to the fact that you’re even angry; thus, it gives you a false sense of certainty, confidence, and optimism.7
When people use their religion or politics—or even humor or teasing8—as a weapon to aggressively disparage others who embrace different beliefs, they unwittingly stimulate the other person’s brain to retaliate with similar aggression. Aggression and hostility shut down activity in the anterior cingulate and striatum—the two key areas of the brain that control anger and fear—and when this occurs, the amygdale takes over, generating a “fight or flight” response that is spread through every other part of the brain.9
In the evidence we’ve cited throughout this book, it is obvious that most forms of spiritual contemplation lead to a healthier brain, and most likely to a healthier society as well. But you must exercise that brain by exposing yourself to new ideas. Think about God and spirituality in different ways, as deeply as you can, and you will learn to appreciate the diversity, fallibility, and mystery of human beliefs.
But no matter how open- minded you become, and no matter how tolerant or compassionate you think you are, there will always remain the remnants of a neurological exclusiveness and fundamentalism in your brain—a wolf that will respond with fear and anger to all that is different and new. The struggle between good and bad, between tolerance and intolerance, between love and hate, is the personal responsibility of every individual on this planet. The question remains: Which wolf will you feed, and which wolf will you tame?
1. Davidson RJ, Lewis DA, Alloy LB, Amaral DG, Bush G, Cohen JD, Drevets WC, Farah MJ, Kagan J, McClelland JL, Nolen Hoeksema S, Peterson BS. Neural and behavioral substrates of mood and mood regulation, Biol Psychiatry, 2002 Sep 15;52(6):478–502.
2. For the most comprehensive overview of anger published to date, see Lerner JS, Tiedens LZ. Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition. J Behavioral Decision Making. 2006:19: 115–137. Tiedens LZ, Linton S. Judgment under emotional certainty and uncertainty: the effects of specific emotions on information processing. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2001 Dec;81(6):973–88. Lerner JS, Goldberg JH, Tetlock PE. Sober second thought: the effects of accountability, anger and authoritarianism on attributions of responsibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 1998;24(6), 563–74.
3. Maner JK, Kenrick DT, Becker DV, Robertson TE, Hofer B, Neuberg SL, Delton AW, Butner J, Schaller M. Functional projection: how fundamental social motives can bias interpersonal perception. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2005 Jan;88(1):63–78.
4. Hugenberg K, Bodenhausen GV. Facing prejudice: implicit prejudice and the perception of facial threat. Psychol Sci. 2003 Nov;14(6):640–3.
5. Lerner JS, Keltner D. Fear, anger, and risk. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2001 Jul;81(1):146–59.
6. Thomas KS, Nelesen RA, Dimsdale JE. Relationships between hostility, anger expression, and blood pressure dipping in an ethnically diverse sample. Psychosom Med. 2004 May–Jun;66(3):298–304.
Chang PP, Ford DE, Meoni LA, Wang NY, Klag MJ. Anger in young men and subsequent premature cardiovascular disease. Arch Intern Med 2002;162:901–6.
Gallacher JE, Yarnell JW, Sweetnam PM, Elwood PC, Stansfeld SA. Anger and incident heart disease in the caerphilly study. Psychosom Med. 1999 Jul– Aug;61(4):446–53.
Bongard S, al’Absi M, Lovallo WR. Interactive effects of trait hostility and anger expression on cardiovascular reactivity in young men. Int J Psychophysiol. 1998 Mar;28(2):181–91.
Shapiro D, Goldstein IB, Jamner LD. Effects of cynical hostility, anger out, anxiety, and defensiveness on ambulatory blood pressure in black and white college students. Psychosom Med. 1996 Jul–Aug;58(4):354–64.
Shapiro D, Goldstein IB, Jamner LD. Effects of anger/hostility, defensiveness, gender, and family history of hypertension on cardiovascular reactivity. Psychophysiology. 1995 Sep;32(5):425–35.
7. Lerner JS, Tiedens LZ. Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition. J Behavioral Decision Making,. 2006:19: 115–137.
8. Anderson CA, Carnagey NL, Eubanks J. Exposure to violent media: the effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003 May;84(5):960–71.
Warm TR. The role of teasing in development and vice versa. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1997 Apr;18(2):97–101.
Ueno Y. [The relation between the attitude toward humor, aggression and altruism] Shinrigaku Kenkyu. 1993 Oct;64(4):247–54.
Prerost FJ. Locus of control and the aggression inhibiting effects of aggressive mhumor appreciation. J Pers Assess. 1983 Jun;47(3):294–9.
Sinnott JD, Ross BM. Comparison of aggression and incongruity as factors in children’s judgments of humor. J Genet Psychol. 1976 Jun;128(2d Half): 241–9.
9. Beaver JD, Lawrence AD, Passamonti L, Calder AJ. Appetitive motivation predicts the neural response to facial signals of aggression. J Neurosci. 2008 Mar 12;28(11):2719–25.
