Mind games

Think you control your choices? Science says think again

Image: MacDonald Almeida

We like to think we’re in control of our choices, but free will may be more illusion than reality. From brain chemistry to social conditioning, powerful forces shape our behavior long before we become aware of them. While there is still room for change and spontaneous decisions, we are often "hijacked" by unconscious processes. Here are 10 factors that make us more predictable than we might think.

Image: Shawn Day

Just like a quick-draw gunslinger, the brain knows what to do long before we consciously decide to act. Neuroscientist Benjamin Libet’s famous experiments in the 1980s showed that brain activity spikes before a person becomes aware of their decision to move.

In these studies, participants were asked to flex their wrists at random moments. Their brains exhibited a "readiness potential"—a buildup of neural activity—up to 500 milliseconds before they reported having made the decision to move. This suggests that the brain initiates actions before the conscious mind "decides."

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According to some scientists, genetic makeup may influence many personal characteristics—from impulsivity to political beliefs—effectively narrowing the kinds of decisions we're likely to make.

This doesn’t mean our genes entirely shackle us, but they do seem to play a significant role in shaping personality. Twin studies have shown that traits such as risk-taking, patience, and even religiosity may have heritable components.

Image: Jordan Whitt

Though it may seem obvious, early environments—such as nutrition, stress levels, and parenting—play a powerful role in shaping neural development and future decision-making ability.

Children raised in poverty or wartime conditions show differences in prefrontal cortex development, changes that might affect life choices for decades.

Image: Maxim Berg

Certain "pleasure chemicals" in the brain—especially dopamine—can heavily steer decision-making without conscious input.

When we anticipate a reward, dopamine surges in brain regions like the striatum, which are involved in evaluating actions and outcomes. This biases us toward actions with immediate gratification—even when we "know better."

Image: Mathew MacQuarrie

Once formed, habits bypass conscious deliberation and begin to operate automatically.

Research shows up to 40% of daily actions are driven by habit. The basal ganglia stores these patterns, allowing us to function on autopilot without making active choices.

Image: Robina Weermeijer

Patients with severed corpus callosums reveal how the brain constructs post-hoc justifications for actions.

In split-brain studies, when one hemisphere initiates an action, the other often makes up a reason for it, demonstrating that we sometimes confabulate explanations rather than make fully conscious, deliberate choices.

Image: Chris Zhang

Sometimes, messages received below conscious awareness can still affect behavior.

In controlled studies, priming participants with certain words or images—such as "elderly" or "money"—can alter their actions and choices, even though they don’t realize it happened.

Image: Михаил Секацкий

We’re wired to mimic others, often without realizing it. While this begins as a survival trait linked to learning in early childhood, its powerful influence can shape our behavior later in life.

First discovered in monkeys and later observed in humans, mirror neurons fire when we see others perform actions. This automatic imitation affects behavior, learning, and even emotional responses—all without conscious intention.

Image: Wesley Tingey

The more choices we make, the worse our judgment tends to become over time.

For example, studies have shown that judges are more likely to grant parole early in the day. By afternoon, mental exhaustion sets in, and denial rates spike.

Image: pavan gupta

Culture shapes our values, desires, and what choices are considered acceptable from birth onward.

Whether you believe in individualism or collectivism, what foods you enjoy, or how you define success—all these are shaped by your cultural environment long before conscious reasoning takes hold.

FANS OF "THE BEAR" WILL RECOGNIZE SOME OF THESE TERMS

10 Kitchen Jargon Terms That Distinguish Chefs From Beginners

Image: Fabrizio Magoni

Just like every craft has its own slang, the world of restaurant cooking is an infinite trove of phrases, lingo, and idioms used to describe actions, places, things, and many other aspects that need an accurate description. What does it mean if something is dying on the pass? Or what is a rail doing in a kitchen? Scroll on to find the answers to these and a few more terms that make up the colorful kitchen slang.

Image: Jason Leung

In a restaurant environment, the dining room is referred to as the floor. When anyone from the kitchen walks out onto the floor, their uniforms are supposed to be clean and they should act appropriately in the sight of guests.

Managers typically do rounds and walk the floor several times during a shift to check on customers.

Image: Des Récits

The act of waxing a table means that a dining space is being prepared for a special guest. This VIP service is usually reserved for important guests like the restaurant owner's family, a critic, or regular customers known as big tippers.

Image: Nick Hillier

As it should be, restaurant dining room tables are identified by how many guests they can accommodate. A table that seats two is called a two-top. A table that seats three is called a three-top. Similarly, for example, there are four-top, or six-top, as well. This system of categorizing tables by their capacity helps streamline operations in busy dining environments and ensures a smooth flow of service.

Image: Stella He

Kitchens can be a very busy place, especially during rush hours. Therefore, to avoid collisions with other staff members scurrying around, it's considered polite to clearly say, "Behind," as you pass behind another person.

This is particularly important if you are carrying a full tray of food, a hot pan, or a rack of glassware. Variations of this expression like "Sharp behind," or "Hot behind," to indicate someone is passing by carrying an object that could harm another staff member, are also used.

Image: Dan Rooney

A fancy way of saying that something is done in a hurry, the kitchen phrase a la minute is a French term that translates to at the minute or on the minute. It describes a cooking method that relies on freshly prepared ingredients, but it's also used to signify a dish or condiment must be made to order.

Image: Jesson Mata

The expression dead plate is used to describe a dish of food that is unservable, either because a customer sent it back or because it was prepared incorrectly. It might be added that, while dead plates are usually considered fair game for servers or cooks to eat, this depends on each restaurant's policy.

Image: Ines Azevedo

If a dish needs to be reheated quickly, the cooks will flash it with high heat on the charbroiler, or the oven. This usually comes as a request from a server when a dish is undercooked, the customer has asked for it, or it has been sitting in the window too long.

Image: Louis Hansel

When you go to a restaurant and ask for a certain food -usually meat- to be very well done, the servers will tell the cooks to kill it. Killing a steak or a chicken breast means to overcook it. What tastes like charcoal to somebody, will be perfectly right for somebody else, right?

Image: Fábio Alves

The pass is the window where cooks leave the dishes ready for the servers to take to the diners. A dish dying on the pass means that it has been sitting for too long in the window and is at the risk of becoming unservable because it's drying up, getting too cold, or due to other issues.

Image: Daniel Bradley

The cooks in a restaurant use a rail or board to hold all of their incoming tickets. It's a strip of metal above the food window that holds tickets in place so anyone on the line can read the orders. Clearing the rail means that all the tickets have been completed. Efficiency and communication are key to a successful service.