Pain, Hunger, Lust - How Visceral Drives Control Our Behavior

This post is dedicated to my brother - just know that you inspire me in many other ways than when it comes to making bad decisions and a lack of self-control ;-)

In a previous post, I talked about the executive control system and how, if its resources are diminished, it can lead to a lack of self-control and irrational decisions. In this case, we simply have not enough monitoring power over bad judgments and thus we find it hard to make a rational choice.

Well, as mentioned, there are other factors that play a role in irrational behaviours and a lack of self-control, and I recently came across some of them in our Judgment and Decision-Making class. The paper I was reading highlighted that sometimes people are not actively making a bad decision - instead, they actually experience feeling out of control, and are not even able to consciously make a decision - instead, they are driven by their instincts and inner drives. Such “visceral factors” are for example hunger, thirst, sexual desire, fatigue and exhaustion, strong emotions, physical pain, or an addiction to a substance.

The two factors that determine if we can call it a visceral factor are first of all, that the drive has an hedonic impact - hedonic means connected to strong pleasant or unpleasant sensations - that is usually negative. Second, it has a relative effect on the immediate and delayed desirability of some related but also other goods and actions. Hunger for example is related to an unpleasant sensation, it increases our desire for eating, and it also affects our mood, for example makes us more irritable. I have a good friend who becomes very hangry (angry because hungry) and I better have a granola bar with me when she arrives in London after a flight that did not offer her any food.

The visceral factor she experiences thus has both unpleasant sensations for her (like a growling stomach) and an impact on her behavior towards others, i.e. on how grumpy she gets. Isn’t that right, you-know-exactly-who? ;-)

But, rest assured, it’s not your fault. Immediately experienced visceral factors have a disproportionate effect on our behaviour, and they often repress virtually all other goals we could have in that moment, such as being in a good mood, patient or happy to see our bestie. Or focusing on work, which is why I really had to eat my good morning salmon sandwich rather than starting to write this post hungry.

Another phenomenon associated with visceral factors is that we humans have a tendency to judge visceral factors we have experienced in the past or are going to experience in the future as much less forceful as they actually were/will be. Sometimes we even completely neglect them. When we are super hungry after work and have to decide what to make for dinner, we then often buy the ready-to-eat meal that’s done in a few minutes - opposed to cooking a multiple-portion nutritious meal, which takes another hour to make but would leave us with leftovers for the next evening when we again come home hungry and on the lookout for something eatable. The next day at work, our decision to eat the frozen pizza on the night before seems rather perplexing - we don’t understand why it was so hard for us to resist the drive for something instant and unhealthy. We also neglect incorporating tomorrow’s hunger into our calculations of what to eat right now. Instead, we tell ourselves that “Tomorrow, I will buy veggies and potatoes and fish and make that dish I saw in the recipe book, but today I’m just too hungry for that.” Well, you can guess what will happen the next day after work again, right?

#instantgratification is all I’m saying…

Many phenomena we experience on a daily basis can be explained by theories about these aspects of visceral factors. In one sense, we do know that giving in to that visceral factor is the wrong thing to do, but we are unable to translate that belief into the appropriate action. Our craving seems to have the ability to drive a wedge between the perceived better option for ourself and our actual behavior in these moments. But why do we so clearly act against our long-term self-interests when it comes to not starting to yell, using appropriate protection against sexually-transmitted diseases, or not having that alcoholic drink at the bar, and we instead act impulsively and without self-control?

Now, don’t get me wrong - it is completely normal, and even considered rational to eat when hungry, to have sex when feeling lustful, or to take pain killers when in pain. We need these experiences of desires because they provide us with important information, especially did they do so once upon a time when it was not so easy to gratify these needs. Hunger signals the need for nutritional input, pain tells us that we better not move a certain part of our body or should remove some external factor (like a hot stove top from our finger), and strong emotions tell us to stop, prioritise or energise certain actions. Visceral factors increase(d) our chances of survival, that’s and because our brain hasn’t changed much in the past million years we still experience them so strongly. The problem arises when visceral factors have an excessive impact on us and turn into self-destructive behaviours such as binge eating, sleeping with someone we shouldn’t have, or a pain killer addiction. Unfortunately, the goal of evolution is survival, not ‘happiness’. Thus, intense visceral factors produce more harm than benefit, for example when extreme fear makes us freeze rather than run away.

Hunger for example ensures that we eat (and survive), even if the feeling is unpleasant and we might opt for a meal that’s not as nutritious as it could be, would we spend more time preparing it. I just recently rewatched The Big Bang Theory, and I immediately thought of Leslie Winkle’s explanation of her (sexual) interest in Leonard:

Leslie: Listen, Leonard, neither of us are neuroscientists but we both understand the biochemistry of sex. I mean, dopamine in our brains is released across synapses causing pleasure. You stick electrodes in a rat's brain, give him an orgasm button, he'll push that thing until he starves to death.

Leonard: Who wouldn't?

It is rather easy to deal with these drives innate to us when they are experienced at a rather low level of intensity. When you feel tired, you might decide to actually exit that Netflix show before the next episode starts and catch up on some sleep. When your stomach starts to make noises, you stop by the bakery around the corner of your office and eat something that gets you through to dinner.

Now, let’s say the intensity of these feelings increases to an intermediary level. Even after sleeping a bit earlier than usual, when your alarm clock rings on the next morning at 6am, you might experience a stronger monetary painfulness of having to get up so early. This might lead you to act a bit less rational, such as snoozing the alarm clock a few times before you actually get up, and you risk being late for work. Or, after 40 minutes of running, you feel more and more exhausted, even if you know that your last run was over an hour long. With increasing intensity of the desires experiences, increasing attention is paid to the factors or things that could relieve the innate pressures. With more hunger, we focus more in food and how to get food, with more sleepiness, we focus more on how much longer we could sleep without being late for sure, with more exhaustion, we focus on just stopping to run and start walking home.

The good thing is that at these intermediate levels, we still observe certain behaviours and actions that are meant to get these strong and potentially dangerous drives under control. We might move the alarm clock across the room so we need to actually get up in the morning. When we notice that we buy the whole product offering of the bakery on a hungry afternoon, we might pack some healthier snacks and eat those in the office to prevent us from going to the bakery. Or, when we get closer to a point of physical exhaustion, we play our power song and push ourselves with mantras to go just bit further. This is where the executive control system can kick in and help to get these medium-level cravings under control - if it is not too exhausted and empty itself. (For more information how it works, exactly, read the 1st Blog Post on Irrational Behavior, bad decisions and a lack of self-control :-)).

Then, at the maximum levels of intensity, the visceral factors can become so overwhelmingly strong that they make rational decisions virtually impossible - our actions become more and more impulsive and we value instant gratification over long-term benefits. No one consciously decides to fall asleep at the wheel on the way to work. For hunger, in our times of convenience stores and food delivery options it is hard to imagine such a level of hunger, but just imagine being lost in the woods for days - I am sure you will try to eat certain foods you could otherwise never imagine to put in your mouth.

Prisoners for example have been shown to sacrifice years of freedom for an extra hour of sleep or a glass of water, as interrogators often use food, water and sleep deprivation as a tactic to extract a confession - potentially even by innocent suspects. At sufficiently high levels of the visceral factors, other forms of consumption or actions not associated with relieving the pressures lose their value. This is why people who smoke often lose weight - the drive for another cigarette can get so strong that it covers up feelings of hunger, and they rather smoke a cigarette than eat something.

Well, what to do with this information, I (and maybe you might) ask myself now. One thing that comes to mind is to cognitively forecast future visceral drives earlier and better, and to prepare for them. By establishing routines or preparing ahead of time we make decisions for ourselves when the visceral drives are at a low level, which could provide a better guide to behavior than momentary feelings. Meal-prep for the week every Sunday afternoon, after you’ve had a good lunch and don’t feel hungry. Sleep enough before you have to drive long distances or need to stay focused in a late evening meeting. “Have sex nightly (with your spouse), regardless of immediate desire” (actually quoting the authors here ;-) Check out page 287 of the paper if you don’t believe me!).

I am actually thinking of what another friend of mine told me recently regarding her Ex who treated her badly and doesn’t even want her back, but whom she still can’t quite resist completely. I didn’t think much of it then, but now I realise how much it has to do with exactly this topic. She said “You know, I think I will need to keep meeting guys on Tinder, even if I don’t like the App. Because next time I see my Ex when I’m out, I do not want to go home with him again, but I am scared to do so because it’s easy and I want sex. Now, I will just have to try and get that need fulfilled with another guy, who does not have such negative consequences for my emotional well-being.”

Such a smart strategy, and it takes a lot of self-awareness to realise that. She basically knows that her self-control in these moments might not be so strong, but she tries to relieve the visceral pressures on her in that moment by giving in to them in a less harmful way, before she has to fight them in a situation where it could cause her more long-term harm if she can’t resist.

Another strategy, one I follow quite strictly, is to avoid the first *whatever*. I have never tried a cigarette in my life, because I’ve always been too afraid of liking it and then becoming addicted. Ask anyone who has sustained from sugars for a few weeks - they don’t even crave it so much anymore. Until they eat one piece of chocolate...

...and the fight begins again. The food and drugs industry has found ways to spark our inner drives with certain ingredients like salt, sugar, nicotine or alcohol that can make us forget all self-control by stimulating the regions in the brain (e.g. the nucleus accumbens) that are responsible for pleasure and addiction. It might be easier not to open (or even better, buy) that bag of Chips than to stop eating after a handful. We all know people who end up drinking way more than they should, or even planned to for that night - they seem to have a problem with stopping at a certain point. Thus, they know that it might be easier to not even have that drink, or not go out at all.

When it comes to more serious problems like drug addiction or violent behaviors, please find someone to talk to, or directly go and see a professional! I am just trying to explain some of the factors that might play a role, and maybe give some practical suggestions of what can help, from own experience. But I am by no means a therapist or a doctor, and in the worst cases these visceral drives can become addictive and very detrimental for your health and well-being.

Of course, life is not all about controlling our actions to the maximum - that would probably take away much of the pleasures of living. Just know that we all go through these inner pressures and that that does not make you a bad person. Forgive yourself if it happens (again). Then next time, try to make it easier for yourself to resist the rather unhealthy urges that might rise up. We all have them, but after all, it is still up to you how to deal with them - do you let them control you, or do you try to take the right actions for you and your life?

Source: Loewenstein, G.,1996 - Out of control: Visceral influences on behavior.