Think about the last time you did something so simple, like tapping the follow button on your favorite creator’s page. Most of the time you aren’t even thinking about it; your finger just automatically moves. Typically, it doesn’t feel like much: your finger just goes up. At other times, however, and in particular when you’re thinking about what goes on when you lift your finger, you may come to distinguish between the moment you are intending to lift your finger and the act itself. That quick tap is what we call an impulse decision.
But what happens when things aren’t that simple? I woke up this morning contemplating what outfit would look the most fresh for the first day after break, but there were so many choices I was stressed. This is called choice overload. In an article that talks about why we have a harder time with choosing, the authors write, “Choice overload, also known as overchoice, choice paralysis, or the paradox of choice, describes how people get overwhelmed when they are presented with many options.”
To begin, impulsive behavior often is chosen because of immediate rewards rather than long term outcomes, such as choosing to scroll on tiktok over doing the dishes. Strong emotions like anger and excitement, or even stress, can trigger the initial response to impulsive actions. In an article from the National Library of Medicine the authors wrote that “Certain modes of action readiness in fact correspond to certain common emotion names: hostility to anger, avoidance to fear, and submission to awe.”
Everyone wants to be able to make their own choices and determine their own fates. But is that realistic? Can people genuinely make their own decisions? People think that choice and free will just happen, and that we have the choice with everything which causes us to become dependent.
However, in a conversation about the illusion of choice, Robert Sapolsky stated, “Often, the reason it remains unstated is because it’s embedded so deeply in our foundational understanding.” Psychology Today wrote about choice decisions where they interviewed scientists on their views; they said “some findings have been taken as evidence that conscious decisions are not truly free.”
Shahram Heshmat wrote an article about acting on impulse and wrote, “We sometimes behave as if we have two selves. This article is the most interesting because it covers psychological thinking, as well as the emotions that come with acting on impulse. Heshmat speaks on the fact that you can have a million options on what you think you should do, but that doesn’t stop you from just picking off the impulse. Go study for your math test or go out with your friends to the beach? Students know they should choose to study for the math test, but realistically students are going to choose to go to the beach.
Heshmat talks about how impulse reactions are “commonly associated with addiction to drugs from different pharmacological classes, but its role in human addiction is unclear.” Amen Clinics wrote an article about the disorders that are becoming more common. They said that ADD/ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and that they are associated with abnormal function in the prefrontal cortex, meaning that the prefrontal cortex located in the front of the brain is not fully developed causing a lack of impulse control. This explains why we choose to go the beach over studying: we lack impulse control.
Naomi Friedman went into more detail in an article she wrote about cognitive control in the prefrontal cortex and stated, “Many psychiatric disorders and neurological conditions are associated with deficits in cognitive control (CC) and/or dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and its associated circuitry.”
Ultimately, when looking at the differences and similarities between impulse control and the option of free will they are truly like a cause and effect scenario. Both decisions stem from the human brain’s complex decision-making processes, yet they operate on opposite ends of control and awareness. Impulsive decisions happen suddenly, often without conscious thought or consideration of consequences; however, choices require thought, reflection, and use of the prefrontal cortex.
When making impulsive decisions the prefrontal cortex is not in use, due to lack of development. Even though both are a part of human behavior, and reflect our ability for free will—or maybe the illusion of control—they show the constant tension between instinct and reason. In the end, impulse and choice are not entirely separate; instead, they coexist as two sides of how we steer through the freedom and complexity of the human brain.
