Continuing Education for Psychologists

FEELING SMART
Why Our Emotions Are More Rational Than We Think

Which is smarter–your head or your gut? It's a familiar refrain: you're getting too emotional. Try and think rationally. But is it always good advice?

In this surprising book, Eyal Winter asks a simple question: why do we have emotions? If they lead to such bad decisions, why hasn't evolution long since made emotions irrelevant? The answer is that, even though they may not behave in a purely logical manner, our emotions frequently lead us to better, safer, more optimal outcomes.

In fact, as Winter discovers, there is often logic in emotion, and emotion in logic. For instance, many mutually beneficial commitments–such as marriage, or being a member of a team–are only possible when underscored by emotion rather than deliberate thought. The difference between pleasurable music and bad noise is mathematically precise; yet it is also something we feel at an instinctive level. And even though people are usually overconfident–how can we all be above average?–we often benefit from our arrogance.

Feeling Smart brings together game theory, evolution, and behavioral science to produce a surprising and very persuasive defense of how we think, even when we don't.

Eyal Winter is professor of economics and director of the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he served as the chairman of the economics department. Winter was the 2011 recipient of the Humboldt Prize, awarded by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"It is that rare book that a casual reader could open at a random page and expect to find something interesting–For the casual reader, Feeling Smart is a fascinating–romp through the positive ways that emotions can shape our actions. It is also a helpful balm for those who worry that their emotions occasionally over-run their higher faculties'." –Financial Times

"Insightful and intriguing."
--Success Magazine

"Filled with fascinating studies and personal anecdotes–A lively, accessible work."
--Kirkus Reviews

"[Feeling Smart] gives plentiful insights into the many factors that govern our choices...we can at least begin, with its help, to reason with our emotions through their inherent foundation of rationality."
--Publishers Weekly

"Eyal Winter's book admirably draws together the important recent work on social and individual behavior and its implications for economic behavior. He shows clearly how the more traditional rational analysis remains an important part of explanation, but is by no means adequate. His exposition is breezily informal, yet rigorous; accounts from his family join seamlessly with citations on the literature, to which he himself has made significant contributions."
--Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Laureate in Economics

"Feeling Smart puts the social back into social science. The truth is that there's a touchy feely aspect of Game Theory, and Winter shows how expressing and understanding your feelings (and those around you) will help you become a far better strategist. Be smarter or be smarting, your call."
--Barry Nalebuff, Milton Steinbach Professor, Yale School of Management, and coauthor of The Art of Strategy

"Emotions and rationality are often thought of as polar opposites. But Eyal Winter–a leading game theorist and economist–shows compellingly that emotions can actually promote rational behavior. His book makes fascinating reading."
--Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics

"It is a pleasure to follow Eyal Winter as he explores the deep logic of illogical emotions and helps us to see the rationality of irrational behavior."
--Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in Economics

"Much like Sigmund Freud, Eyal Winter knows that understanding human behavior demands listening and observing rather than labeling and categorizing. But here's what Freud didn't know: that framing his findings in the rigorous language of economic theory would be so illuminating, so surprising, and so exciting."
--Robert Lucas, Nobel Laureate in Economics

"We are used to thinking that emotions such as anger, love, insult, and so forth are irrational. In his new book, Eyal Winter explains why these emotions are actually very rational, fulfilling important functions that usually advance the most vital interests of each of us. This is an important, enjoyable, and convincing book."
--Robert J. Aumann, Nobel Laureate in Economics

"Eyal Winter, a distinguished game theorist and behavioral economist, writes about rationality and emotion with compassion and empathy." –Alvin Roth, Nobel Laureate in Economics