The human behavior radically comes from emotions rather than reason.
Our daily lives are filled with a constant sequence of behaviors and for a long time, the dispute to define the essential factor or process of the human behavior has been heated in philosophy and psychology. You might probably think that people do not need to reflect on the topic seriously, taking it for granted. However, it is completely overlooking true introspection which can be achieved by recognizing one’s behavior. Thus, there have been many philosophers or behaviorists who made efforts to explain the root of human behavior for the true introspection of human. Some of them prefer mentioning human reason, emotions or will to interpret the starting point or the basis of human behavior. Such efforts of them are connected with the debate. The debate to shed light on the whole of truth of human behavior is still underway and will not end until the complete research on body. Despite this vagueness, it is definitely truth that the human behavior radically comes from emotions rather than others like reason.
An accurate definition and separation of emotions and reason would be first necessary. According to Kendra Cherry, a psychology expert in United States, emotion is defined as a complex mental state of feeling that causes psychological or physical changes that have effects on one’s thought or behavior. You may think that this definition has already stated that emotions essentially and directly cause human behavior. However, the idea is too early because the definition does not mention the role of reason. Thus, it is also necessary to know what reason is. Reason means the ability to think based on the fundamental notion(concept) according to philosophy dictionary.
Sigmund Freud is the most well-known psychoanalyst who tried to explain human consciousness. He denied any religious explanation in terms of human consciousness and behavior but accepted and created more logical and reasonable theory to explain them. He separated human mind into three parts: Ego, Superego and Id. This is what we call ‘psychodynamic theory.’ According to his theory, desire that comes from the id that includes biological instinct, emotions and basic conflict in his early life lets one behave in a particular way. Also, ego and superego lead one to behave in realistic and moral way. These id, ego and superego’s roles are the similar concept to human reason and emotions. Emotions as starting point of behavior and reason as limiting process of consciousness can be explained through id and, superego and ego in his theory.
Some people deny the necessity of emotions, looking only negative aspects of emotions such as urge, carnal desire or bad feelings or regarding them as just animal senses. Some of them even regard reason and reflection as the best part of human. They are overlooking the ‘variety of life’ which comes from emotions. Because of sorrow, there is happiness and because of the feeling of inadequacy, there is satisfaction. Byungsu Kim, a Korean psychologic professor in Seoul Asan hospital, emphasized the necessity of emotions and said that people need to follow the decision by emotions. Regarding emotions as uncivilized things is invalid misunderstanding. Recognizing the importance of emotions and reason and understanding the specific process of them which have effects on human behavior is necessary to everyone. Thus, I would like to explain the process, resolving a misunderstanding that reason is more fundamental process for one’s behavior.
There are some difficulties to shed light on the truth of complicated human behavior with specific evidences such as statistics. Thus, discussing this topic should depend on logic and real examples. I will introduce appropriate logic and examples to support this idea.
The first reason is that emotions are the first instant response which induce one to decide to behave in particular way toward your body state or surroundings. This is also supported by Dr. Richard W. Scholl's research and Freud’s <Psychodynamic Theory> mentioned above. His theory that mentions the id, ego, and superego can be interpreted as concept of emotions and reason. Also, according to his theory, the process of human behavior is clearly explained through the concept of them. I skip specific explanation of the theory because I have already mentioned above.
Also, think of your daily life. From getting up and eating to sleeping, most behaviors start very momentarily by the feeling of your body without reflection. It is because, emotions operate directly and primarily to influence on human before the operation of reason. Imagine your morning. Before getting up, sense of fullness that you slept enough or fear that you might get scolded later if you don't get up now come to you and make your eyes open. When you are working, if your boss set you a hard task, the excitement that you will be able to take a break after completing it or the fear that you might be scolded from the fierce boss make you do the work happily or reluctantly. In this way, the starting point of human behavior can be explained with emotions. In this part, the emotion is former emotion.
In the next, human can control his or her behavior by reason(or introspection) which comes after the start of the behavior. A Korean famous psychologist, Buyng Su Kim says that reason plays a role to control or limit one’s behavior through the reflection about reality, emphasizing that the most reliable origin of human behavior is emotions. Also, as mentioned above, once human starts to do something by the former emotion, they feel consequent emotion as an impression which comes from what you did. By the consequent emotion, you operate your reasoning system to control the behavior or save the memory as feedback. Suppose that you have a meal. After you overeat, you will think that overeating can make you unhealthy and fat, so you make your own conclusion that you will never overeat next time. Like this, a kind of system which estimates what you did and control your behavior is what reason do.
Someone can say that not every behavior comes from emotions. They say it is also true that some behaviors can come from reason or obligation. However, the opinion is overlooking that the primary step which causes behaviors is even emotions not obligation or reason. According to the article <Lesson of Emotions> written by ShinJu Kang, a Doctor of philosophy in Korea, people tend to decide the essence of behaviors on their own way because of ‘the aftereffect of reasoning.’ For example, a person who is really proud of himself after volunteering work unconsciously deceives himself, thinking that he did because of the obligation. It is because the process of reason let him assess himself and it clouded the most primary role of emotions. Actually, before he started to do the work, he would feel expectation that he will be proud of himself through helping someone. Feeling the expectation is what emotion first caused him to behave(do the volunteering work). Also, for example of reason, you might reflect on something to plan before do that. However, because the reflection also comes from the fear that you might get damaged if you do not do well or expectation that you would get reward after completing that, the reasoning system operates. Namely, all of the start points of behaviors can be explained with emotions. This is not exclusion of reason or obligation.
Some people also criticize this opinion, arguing that starting points of unconscious behaviors cannot be explained with just emotions. Then, can they be explained with reasoning process? However, it is not. Unconscious behavior is literally a kind of action from unconsciousness in human. This is what can be explained with any innate process or genetic action of human. It is inappropriate and impossible to mention the unconscious behaviors.
To sum up, Emotions are the rapidest reactions to our body state or surrounding than any other factors such as reason. Then, of course, the human body works by the emotions before any other process. After the start of behavior, we human bodies go through the process of thinking, or reasoning time. This eventually makes bodies to stop, keep or refrain.
Misunderstanding that reason is the first step of human behavior should be corrected. Reason has to be a sort of controller of human behavior which was first caused by various emotions. Then why do people have to consider the starting point and entire process of human behavior? It is because a human behavior has a great effect on a group, a society, a nation, and even the world. Although it is not true that all of the human behaviors do, humanity has seen many incidents caused by one’s or a group’s wrong behavior―you can recall Holocaust in Europe or a short period of autocracy by a man who wanted to keep his authority through killing all of people against him in Korea. It is probably impossible to say that these incidents are from the harmony of reason and emotions. In not only wide scope but also our lives, imbalance of emotions and reasons is very dangerous to ourselves or people around as well. What we should do to prevent the disharmony is recognize the exact principle of behavior and balance the reason and emotions appropriately. The ultimate purpose of Freud’s <Psychodynamic theory> was also to let people know that the balance of the id, ego, and superego(can be substituted to reason and emotions in this opinion) is very necessary. This concept will lead to one’s good behavioral traits affecting himself or herself and even the world well.
Reference
1) Kendra Cherry(?). Theories of Emotions. Retrieved from
2) Seok Jin Lim(2009). Philosophy Dictionary. Retrieved from
3) The Biography.com website(2014). Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from
4) Examples of Id Ego and Superego(n.d.). Retrieved from
5) Richard W.(2007) .Affective Motivation and Emotional Competency. Retrieved from
6) Kendra Cherry(?). The purpose of emotions. Retrieved from
7) ShinJu Kang(2003, November). Lesson of Emotions. Retrieved from
