Candy bars, casinos, and your brain

What do candy bars and casinos have in common? The sellers cleverly take advantage of human brains’ weaknesses. 

Let’s start with the candy bars that are at the grocery store checkout. By the time you are standing in line to pay, you have made dozens of decisions – well, the recipe calls for blueberries, but raspberries are on sale; is it worth getting the gigantic jar of peanut butter; maybe I really will start eating flax seed this week; and so on. 

In decision fatigue, your brain shifts away from its planning, prioritizing, impulse control skills and shifts toward fast, immediate thinking. This shift in thinking patterns is predictable in all humans. A brain weary from making decisions simply has less capacity for careful deliberation, for paying attention to difficult tasks, and for controlling impulses. 

Having a human brain makes you especially prone to buying that grocery store checkout candy bar. Yes, being tired and hungry also helps, but your brain is still in charge.

Similarly, casinos ply gamblers with alcohol, a quick and  effective way to impair executive function. Impaired brains are the well-known reason for embarrassing episodes at office Christmas parties. Weaken or shut off a person’s executive function and you get more gambling, more dancing on tables, and more truly bad karaoke. 

Facing endless decisions is a way of life for people coping with poverty, more so than a person who has means. For example, a person with means does not spend mental energy on whether their car is going to start, their childcare will show up, or their rent will increase. A person with means may make a lot of decisions in a day but the fundamental parts of their life are more predictable and demand less attention. 

Imagine having that end-of-grocery-shopping-trip feeling all the time. Society judges people facing overwhelming mental demands when they make a decision that a less-weary brain would not make – when they buy the candy bar, in other words. 

The next time you are frustrated with someone who is not “getting” your help, try remembering how enticing those candy bars look or how well your drunken self keeps your dignity. You might see a new and more successful way to help them.