Why do we sometimes act irrationally?

Surely it has happened to you at some point: you have acted irrationally. You have done something spontaneously, such as making a wrong decision or committing an act that you always end up regretting. You don’t have to be a teenager to perform actions that escape all understanding, even your own.

You acted irrationally because at that moment you may have found yourself in a context that pushed you to do a certain thing. Or, it is possible that your emotional state required you to react in a way that was not exactly the most appropriate.

People are complex creatures apparently endowed with balance and rationality, but the truth is that this is not always the case. Furthermore, seeking justification for our actions when they are irrational is always difficult. However, there are several explanations in this regard that are worth reviewing to understand why these behaviors happen. Would you like to know more?

Why do we act irrationally?

We cannot always know the reasons why someone acts irrationally. However, thanks to research, we can get pretty close to the bottom of the matter.

1. Halo effect

The halo effect is a very common cognitive bias. Let’s look for an example: we like a person. We don’t know her too much but the little we know about her is enough to believe that everything she does, says and thinks is equally positive and good.

We construct a series of self-interpretations that do not always fit reality.but the attraction that said person exerts on us is enough to think that he is as good as the feelings he provokes in us.

All of this induces us to carry out acts and behaviors that are justified by the halo effect, by thinking that we are doing things for someone who is truly worthwhile. It is undoubtedly one of the most recurring errors, and one that can happen to us at any time.

2. Cognitive dissonance: When the mind acts in the face of the irrational

Our life and reality are full of contradictions. It is normal and expected. There are people who know how to face these events normally, interpret them and act in accordance with appropriate principles, without harming anyone.

However, Other people may not tolerate this ambivalence, it causes anxiety and restlessness. How to keep two contradictory ideas in mind? Let’s take a fairly illustrative example. One loves his partner, the person with whom he lives.

However, you feel very attracted to a co-worker. So much so that he ends up betraying him. How to endure that dissonance? “I love my partner, however I am cheating on her.” People who do not know how to face reality and who prefer to stay with the dissonance will end up looking for an explanation that benefits them: I have cheated on my partner because he/she did not love me enough.

These would then be small self-justifications with which to maintain our own integrity. A way of feeling good, despite not acting correctly.

3. Blind obedience to authority, even if the order is irrational

There are many experiments, such as the one carried out by Stanley Milgram, which They show us how people are capable of following in the wake of a certain person or group, even when their ideas conflict with our own principles and values.

Why is this happening? Maybe, for the need to be part of a group, for pressure, for comfort, for not being different. For maintaining the same idea or behavior as the group one belongs to. Quite shocking realities that tend to occur very often in our daily lives, on a small or large scale.

In conclusion, it may be that, on some occasion, we ourselves have been pressured or induced by a group of people to perform some irrational act of greater or lesser importance. Something that even today, we wonder why we do it. Obedience to authority would perhaps be a simple explanation.

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