The Real Boss in Your Head

The brain processes information non-stop and instruct us on how best to deal with it.

Our subconscious thoughts can manipulate our goals and motivations much more than we have ever imagined. Recent findings show that the human brain is often steps ahead of its owner, often preparing for action well before any conscious thoughts instruct it to do so. Ruud Custers and Henk Aarts of Utrecht University in the Netherlands have come to this conclusion after reviewing some recent research. In an article in Science, they cite work by researchers such as John Bargh and Peter Gollwitzer who showed how motivation toward a goal could arise without conscious awareness. Students were seated at a table to work on two seemingly unrelated language puzzles. For some students, the first puzzle included words related to achievement (such as ‘win’ or ‘achieve’), and for others it did not. Students who were exposed to achievement words were found to outperform the others on the second puzzle. The brain, they state, is designed for action, continuously and subconsciously processing information relevant to our behaviour. This way it is always ready to ‘instruct’ its owner on how to deal with the scenarios and challenges posed by our environments.