Understand your chimp brain to get that monkey off your back

Introduction

Today I will be discussing The Chimp Model which will be Simplifying Neuroscience.

You don’t have one brain—you have three; your ancient Chimp brain that keeps you alive, your modern human brain that navigates the civilised world, and your Computer brain that runs your habits (good and bad). They fight for control all the time.

 

What’s going on inside your brain?

Inside the head of every human are two very distinct parts of the brain vying for control of your thoughts and feelings. First, there is the limbic system, which reacts only to drives and instincts that you experience as feelings and impressions. Then, there is the frontal cortex, which deals with facts and logic and guides empathy, moral judgement, and social conscience.

 

Where does the chimp metaphor come from?

The chimp metaphor comes from Dr. Steve Peters, a British forensic and sport psychiatrist who wrote The Chimp Paradox. The chimp is a great metaphor for the limbic system because a chimp often acts up, has tantrums, and can be pretty disruptive. But a chimp can also be calm, sleepy, adorable and cuddly. Most importantly, a chimp doesn’t really mean any harm to you because it doesn’t know any better. It’s just a chimp. In contrast to your Chimp, we refer to your frontal cortex as your human brain, because it’s always logical and only deals in facts and truth.

 

The Chimp Model is an incredibly powerful mind management model that can help you become a happy, confident, healthier, and more successful person. The Model offers a simplified way of understanding our two thinking brains and how we can learn to use them to the best of our ability. It is a simple representation to aid understanding about how our minds work. It may also help us to make sense of how we have been in the past, how we are now, and how we can manage ourselves better in the future.

 

 In our mind management model, the inner Chimp is the emotional team within the brain that thinks and acts for us without our permission. The logical team is the real person, it is you; rational, compassionate and humane, and is the Human within. The memory banks for reference are the Computer. 

 

Differences between The computer system, the human system and the chimp system

 

The Computer System

Meet your operating system – The Computer brain is a reference source for both the Human and Chimp. It stores their beliefs about what is right and important in the world. The Computer also stores memories, providing advice from past experience. Whilst it does not think for itself, the Computer can be programmed to take action in certain circumstances, making it the fastest system in the brain.

 

It’s not technically a brain on its own, but more a function of many different regions that help you run automatic programs like habits and routines. It also uses your memory banks to shape expectations you have of people and situations. It is akin to a computer’s operating system because it runs in the background, it’s extremely fast, and it helps you launch programs to deal with different situations.

 

The neuroanatomy of your brain’s operating system is very complex, and its functions occur in many different brain structures. Most important, your Computer brain helps you act automatically using preprogrammed thoughts and actions. Like a computer, it stores memories. Like a reference book, it stores information about your beliefs and values. We need a Computer brain because much of what we think and do must be automated in order to cope with the sheer number of decisions that need to be made every day (estimated at approximately 35,000!). When we learn skills well, we turn them over to the Computer brain to manage.

 

When you are born, the hard drive of your Computer brain is blank. As you grow up, it fills with information based on your education and experience. All information on the computer comes from what the Chimp and the human have given it. When the Chimp stores information on the computer, it is based on Chimp logic (paranoid, catastrophic, fear-based). When humans store information on the computer, it is based on human logic (facts and reasoning). Your Computer brain has a limitless capacity for storage, but things that are associated with strong emotion get special treatment. This is more evidence that your Chimp brain stacks the deck in its favour. Your Chimp puts a lot of crap on your computer to promote its own agenda of staying alive and rewarding your instincts and drives for food, ego, security, territory, inquisitiveness, and so on. Often we don’t focus on facts and logic but instead recall only emotionally charged experiences to help us determine how we feel about something. In some instances, this creates an extreme pattern of behaviour that defies logic and reason but persists anyway. This is what causes phobias or irrational fears.

 

The Human System

The Human is the conscious thinking system in the brain – it is you. Only you can decide how you would like to be in life and how you would like to live your life. The human’s basis for thinking therefore is facts and logic, which can take time to piece together.

 

It is your voice of reason.  Your human brain is the only part of you that can actually think (in the sense that it can be conscious of itself, reason, think abstractly, and so on). Your human brain got you through school and college. Driven by facts and logic, it’s motivated by honesty, compassion, and self-control, and it acts with a conscience, searches for purpose in life, and works for a sense of achievement. It does the intellectual heavy lifting required of good decisions. However, here’s the most important point to remember about your human brain: It deals only with facts, truth, and logic. If your human brain was in charge, you’d make smart, rational decisions all the time. However, because it takes time to weigh up pros and cons, consider alternatives, and think through rules and regulations, your human brain is notoriously slow. When the Chimp releases powerful neurotransmitters during the decision-making process, your human brain gets pushed aside or tricked. In fact, studies in cognitive science and behavioural economics have shown that your human brain is pushed, bullied, and tricked most of the time. 

 

The Chimp System

The Chimp is a primitive system in the brain which you do not control. The Chimp can think for itself and works with drives and instincts for surviving in the jungle. The Chimp’s basis for thinking is its feelings and impressions of the world; it is emotionally driven, impulsive, and quick to react.

 

It is your inner primate. Scientific studies in neuroscience and cognitive psychology have proven that your Chimp brain is a tough wee bastard. Your Chimp was bestowed with biochemical powers (called neurotransmitters) that enable it to bully your human brain into submission. 

 

The Chimp brain makes decisions emotionally, basing thoughts on assumptions and hunches. This can be either good or bad: Sometimes, your “gut feeling” is accurate and perceives something subtle that your rational mind misses. Other times, gut feelings are based on overly negative, defensive, or paranoid thoughts, and can direct you wrongly. This is the paradox: The Chimp’s thinking can be sometimes helpful and sometimes harmful. Understanding how your Chimp thinks and operates will allow you to harness its emotional drives when they can benefit you, while limiting the harm they can cause when they turn negative. 

 

• As we stated earlier, your Chimp thinking is emotional and irrational. Therefore, when it reacts to a situation, it:
• Jumps to conclusions: A Chimp makes fast judgments before it has a full set of information.
• Thinks in black and white: Chimps see situations as either very good or very bad, and are unable to process subtleties.
• Digs in: Chimps don’t often consider alternate points of view or other interpretations, and once they’ve chosen a stance, they tend to defend it blindly, regardless of what additional information comes to light.
• Is paranoid: Your Chimp has evolved to look out for danger and therefore defaults to paranoia in situations where it doesn’t understand what’s going on. The more insecure your Chimp feels, the less trusting it becomes, and in uncomfortable situations, it can easily interpret harmless situations as dangerous—for example, it might hear offhand comments and assume they’re insults.
• Think catastrophically: Because of its tendency to see danger everywhere, your Chimp overreacts to situations with intense emotion, anxiety, and despair.
• Think irrationally: Because your Chimp jumps to conclusions, it doesn’t evaluate whether something is likely or realistic before settling on an opinion. Therefore, its thoughts are often ungrounded in reality or logic.
• Judges first, questions second: A Chimp makes its judgments based on feelings and impressions and only then looks for facts and rationale to back up its decisions.

 

When a Chimp reacts with these instincts, it can cause problems that could have been avoided. For example, imagine Tom is waiting for his brother, Joe, outside a restaurant. Joe is so late that they’ve missed their reservation. Tom’s Chimp hijacks his brain with emotional thoughts, such as: Joe knows I hate being late, he doesn’t respect my time, he’s let me down, and so on. When Joe does show up, Tom’s Chimp drives him to confront Joe angrily before asking for an explanation. When Joe defends himself by explaining what held him up, Tom’s Chimp switches to feeling remorse and embarrassment, but the damage to their relationship has already been done, and neither brother enjoys the rest of the evening. 

 

Characteristics of chimp brain:

• Controls the fight, flight, or freeze response, a powerful response to danger.
• Is a first responder for all sensory information. Research shows that your Chimp brain processes and reacts to sensory input data up to five times quicker than your human brain.
• Maintains very strong drives for food, power, ego, being accepted by others, security, inquisitiveness, and so on. Your Chimp is motivated to protect these drives at all times.
• Uses powerful neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin to get your attention and move you to act.
• Think in black and white, there is no grey. Only right or wrong.
• Is paranoid as a result of a deep-seated need for safety. Is hypervigilant about protecting you.
• Elevates threats to catastrophic—they are always a matter of life or death.
• Acts irrationally; never mind if it’s reasonable or feasible.
• Is infallible, final, and merciless.

 

So, you’re stuck with this overemotional roommate that is fixated on preserving basic drives or instincts using feelings and impressions, even though you never asked for help. Your Chimp screams at you to make sure you hear, and worry and anxiety are usually the end result. 

 

Conclusion

But your Chimp brain isn’t all bad. If your life is truly at risk, it will help you perform amazing acts of bravery. Don’t get the impression that all your problems will be solved if you could just be rid of your Chimp. You need your Chimp. We’ve just got to make sure it’s well trained.

 

Your Human brain deals with facts, truth, and logic. Your Chimp brain deals with feelings, impressions, and emotions, based on instincts and drives. Your Computer brain acts like a machine that takes orders from the Chimp or human and runs stored programs based on your experiences and memories so you don’t have to think too much. These brain systems all fight for control.

 

Learning how to calm the f*ck down and rise to the occasion is about recognizing which brain is in charge and then doing some brain wrangling to get the right brain for the job back in control.