It’s Saturday morning and the first light beams through a crack in the curtain. Rising is slow and a hot drink is prepared. Pressures are few and no plans have been made. The first sip of tea soothes a parched throat and the eyes wander to watch the outside world turn. Continue reading
There are different expressions of emotion categorised as pain or pleasure. Our feelings provide guides for the survival of our bodies. Most animals are thought to feel pain and pleasure. We also know from behavioural experiments that pain and pleasure is triggered associatively, like the baby that hears a loud crash when seeing a toy. Repeated experience of this causes the baby to cry when it sees the toy again, despite the absence of the sound that time. Given that emotions play such a significant role in our choices and our perspective on things, how should we untangle bias and potentially harmful conditioning? Continue reading