MOSCOW, March 12, Svetlana Vovk. The seventh season of the show “Amazing People” begins on the Rossiya TV channel on March 15. Project participants with different superpowers will again compete for the winner's cup and a prize of five million rubles. Vasily Klyucharyov, a member of the competition jury, scientist, professor at the Center for Neuroeconomics and Cognitive Research, explained in an interview why it is useful to be surprised, how the brain determines our destiny, whether we ourselves make decisions and whether we should trust popular books on self-development.
— Why are you interested in the “Amazing People” project on the Rossiya TV channel as a scientist?
— It’s interesting to go beyond your field! My current research focuses on how our brains shape decision-making. And there is not enough time to think about other processes related to attention, memory, and coordination of movements. Participating in the show “Amazing People” makes me remember something, read something. Sometimes this makes me think about joint projects with colleagues. Sometimes they come to me and ask if we can collaborate because they are attracted by what they saw in this project.
I am a scientist, but I also tend to be surprised. I'm interested in spending time with people from a different field – some are great athletes, some are dancers, some are musicians. This is an unusual and very interesting communication for me.
— In one of your interviews, you said that being surprised is generally useful. Why?
— There are theories that our brain is created by evolution as a machine of surprise. Its main task is to predict every second what will happen in the next moment. The simplest option is to follow the tracks and find food. In a more complex way – how to build a career, what its results will be. And if our predictions differ from what happens, we are surprised.
Surprise is a learning signal that we can detect using special scientific instruments. I am frightened by people who think that they do not make mistakes at all, who are not surprised, because they most likely do not learn anything. In addition, when we are surprised, the brain produces dopamine, one of the mediators of pleasure. And this means that life is not fresh and not boring.
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— They say that character is destiny. Can we rephrase and say that brain activity is destiny? How different are we all in this sense?
– Yes, we are our brain, it determines our life. But it is formed both with the help of a set of genes and under the influence of the environment in which you find yourself. For example, success in mathematics is 60-70 percent determined by genes. However, only teachers, parents, interesting books from this field can make you a brilliant mathematician. Our genes are fully revealed only in a favorable environment. Each of us has a completely unique brain. You can easily distinguish people by its scan, like fingerprints.
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— One of the topics of your scientific activity is whether a person is free in decision making. The studies you mentioned have shown that we often think we choose, but in fact they do it for us. Do all people have such a vulnerable brain to other people's influences?
— Many studies show that people do not understand the reason for their decisions and do not really like it being explained to them: this makes the decision seem less interesting to us. Therefore, we are usually not aware of who, what and how influences us. Often our behavior is determined by those around us.
One study looked at how people conserve energy. Their attitude to the environment was also considered, and education and income were taken into account. And nothing predicted whether a person would save electricity as well as… the behavior of his neighbors. If neighbors save electricity, then we behave the same way. We adapt to those around us, there are signs that this happens automatically, subconsciously. It's difficult to control. And we are now developing a technique to teach a person to be more critical of what is happening.
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— That is, how to overcome the herd mentality?
— Yes. It is clear that the herd mentality is sometimes useful. If, for example, you come to a dinner where everyone is using cutlery that is unknown to you, it is very convenient to spy on how they do it. Why try everything yourself? But very often we underestimate that our opinion is just an adjustment to those around us, who are not always right.
— Recently Everyone was discussing the series “The Boy's Word”. Many believed that it had a negative impact on the fragile minds of adolescents and could provoke aggression and cruelty. How much do you think a film, music or computer games can change human behavior?
— My subjective opinion as a viewer is that “The Boy’s Word” is a product for an adult audience. But this applies specifically to this project. My wife and I once went to the dacha and listened to a course of lectures on human biology. I'm a biologist, so I knew most of the facts. And my wife is a landscape architect. At the end of the lecture, she said thoughtfully: “What a pity that, as a teenager, I did not understand how changes in hormones affect my decisions, my behavior, I did not know that my brain is finally formed at the age of 25.” Therefore, it is very important for all of us to understand the complex path of development that the brain and body of a teenager go through. It’s a shame that we rarely explain this to teenagers themselves.
We know that the brains of people from different cultures differ more than perhaps even between men and women. And, of course, cultural events sometimes greatly influence the processes taking place in society, for example, Marx’s “Capital” or Nietzsche’s “As Spoke Zarathustra”. The question is which is more dangerous, which is less. There is no consensus here. It is clear that we need to be careful about games that promote violence. Although studies show: the effects of computer games are not as strong as everyone fears.
—Are those who believe that art should display only beauty, kindness, and heroes of books and films should be models for behavior right? ? If writers, directors and artists idealize the world in their works, will it become a better place?
– The idea that we will create some kind of environment that will create a new “ideal” humanity is not new – we went through this in Soviet times. I would not look for simple answers, much less go into that river that we passed decades ago. In life, everything is much more complex and non-linear. We understand that the person who caused trouble, conventionally Rodion Raskolnikov, is much more important than some charismatic hero who throughout his life reached incredible heights without ever failing.
— How do you feel about the now fashionable desire to “live consciously”? Is it possible to really learn to control your thoughts and block the negativity that comes from other people?
“We have many systems in the brain. And one of them, very powerful, is the system of conscious cognitive functions: consciousness and mechanisms for making rational decisions. Our brain is incredibly creative and is capable of modifying information in different ways, rethinking it, reinterpreting it in order to understand what is happening to you. Maybe you misunderstand the situation, maybe, conditionally, the glass is not only half empty, but also half full, and you are faced with not only a problem, but also an opportunity for development. This is one of the main tools of psychotherapy. But, on the other hand, for example, you may be well aware that you should quit smoking and drinking, but this does not mean that you will do it on your own. This is a lot of work, and not just awareness of what is happening.
— Self-development books like “Cultivate a Leader in You” are very popular now. Should you trust them?
– There are millions of such books. There are also absolutely meaningless ones, but many contain practical advice. First, I would look at who wrote them, how authoritative the author is. Often a person with a decent number of subscribers on the Internet already calls himself a psychologist, and this causes irony among professionals.
– A question about love. They say that a man and a woman, when they see each other, decide in the first few seconds whether they will have an affair or not. How do we choose a couple?
— Today, the younger generation is increasingly meeting people via the Internet. And you can use big data to analyze what they are focusing on and whether they are satisfied with the result. It turned out that they look first of all at attractiveness, of course, and at many other factors: profession, age, height, nationality, income. But none of this predicts the outcome. Our personal characteristics play a key role. The first impression does not determine the success of further love. After communication, everything often changes. We suddenly begin to appreciate those who suit our personality, and are not just visually attractive.
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