It all starts with intentions

I have often wondered about why people do what they do, and where it all starts. Where does human behavior come from, I ask myself. This may sound like a strange question, but to me it’s key to understanding people. After all, we humans are capable of doing both great harm and good for others, and our behavior shapes the world around us, often in unintended ways. So the question is: to what extent should we be made responsible for our actions, and what is the driving force behind all of this?

Now I don’t know about you, but I regard myself as a good person. In fact, I know many people who think of themselves in the same way. Probably most of them. Maybe all of them. Come to think of it, I have rarely come across anybody who has said anything different. They may have done bad things in the past, but that’s not because they’re bad people inside, they say. No, if they did something wrong, it must have been an accident, or somebody or something made them do it. Somehow.

Thinking of ourselves in a positive light is not just helpful to us, it’s crucial for our confidence and self-respect. It enables us to have faith in ourselves, which in turn enables us to undertake various tasks and challenges that life presents us. It sort of acts as a shield against criticism, scrutiny and even self-doubt. We all have this bias, I believe, it’s part of being human.

But back to my question: Where does human behavior come from? Is it the brain, or maybe the heart? Are we mainly driven by thinking, or emotions? Is it conscious, what we do, or are we doing certain things by instinct, some processes in our brains that we’re not even aware of? I think it must be a combination of all those things. To explain the origin of our behavior is admittedly an enormous task, so I’m not going to pretend to know the answer. But I can always try.

As I was trying to say, we humans like to regard ourselves as inherently good. This in turn shapes our thinking about what we do, and why we do it. But sometimes, we still do bad things. In fact, we sometimes may do bad things, but tell ourselves that it wasn’t that bad after all, or we didn’t intend to do it. We say: my intentions were good, so I shouldn’t be held responsible for what I did. But another person will say: your actions were bad, so you should be held responsible for what you did. Which line of thinking is correct?

Let me here introduce the Norwegian philosopher, writer and lecturer Einar Øverenget, whose TEDx talk from 2017 talks about some of these issues, and other things as well. It’s called “Why good people do bad things.” In it, he says:

“Our rationality enables us to reflect upon our impulses, and decide whether or not to act on those.” He then says that “historically, the view has been that over time, we will develop deep-rooted, stable moral beliefs, virtues, that will guide us through life, and help us make good decisions. And withstand social pressure – whatever other people want us to do, and internal pressure – your own temptations.”

But, as he points out, “being a good person doesn’t automatically produce good behavior. Because we as human beings are also capable of acting against our own principles, and even to do so without having our conscience kicking in, stopping us, or bothering us afterwards. We do that by neutralizing our own virtues.” He goes on to mention seven ways in which we do this. It’s interesting stuff, which made me think about my own reasons for doing things I shouldn’t be doing. Or even things that I should.

He also gives an example: Let’s say that you walk down the street, and there’s a $20 bill laying on the ground. What should you do? Somebody has obviously lost it, but there’s no one around. Do you pick it up and keep it, or leave it as it is? What is the right thing to do, you ask yourself. If you keep it, does it mean you are a bad person? What drives your behavior?

In life, we are presented with choices, and have to make decisions based on those choices. Those decisions, in turn, will determine the outcome of various events in our lives. Those events will then determine how our lives pan out, and will greatly influence the way we see each other, or how we see ourselves in the world. Are we feeling happy? Does my life have a purpose? And so on.

So it all starts with choices, then. Yeah, but it’s not that simple. How should we know which choice to make? What if there are more choices than we’re aware of at the time, what should we do? Doing what’s logical or rational at the time may seem like a good solution, but what if your heart tells you it’s wrong? If you throw in all kinds of ethical questions, social norms, personal desires and add to that the question of responsibility, it all starts to get complicated.

Of course, it could be that we don’t have any choice. That would make the world deterministic, and would solve many problems. But by way of approaching life, I think it would also create even more problems. People would say: “Oh, I couldn’t help myself from doing it, I know it’s wrong but hey, if it’s all pre-determined anyway, I shouldn’t have any responsibility for what I did.” I choose to think differently, that we are all equipped with free will, which makes us responsible for whatever we set out to do.

That brings me back to the dilemma of intention vs action. Should we be held responsible for our intentions, or our actions? Well it seems obvious that actions are based on intentions. So logically, it’s the intentions that are the ones we should focus on, it’s where our behavior comes from.

But how can one measure another person’s intentions? What if someone says that whatever he did, he always had the best of intentions at heart? After all, we don’t have any intentions-police that can catch people, perhaps before they even manage to turn their harmful intentions into unwanted action, like crime. In case you’re wondering, yes, they made a film about this concept, it’s called Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. But even there, it didn’t solve all problems.

I guess the answer to this latest question is: there is no simple answer. The good news is that we all have a conscience that should, in theory, guide us through our moral dilemmas of the day, and steer us away from dangerous territory. It could be that we all have a different kind of conscience, which would explain why some people rarely allow themselves to do bad things, while others have a smaller moral obstacle to overcome, and as a result do such things more often. Some people even argue that certain people don’t have a conscience at all.

So what is the conclusion to all of this mind wandering that I have presented to you? What is the answer to why people behave the way they do? I wish I knew. But I’m inclined to think the following: it all starts with intentions.

 

Tags: Einar Øverenget, Explaining human behavior, Intention vs action, Intentions, Where does human behavior come from