Math and the heart – the words sound
completely opposed. We like to divide
things into “left-brain” and “right-brain” and never the twain shall meet. I’m
this or I’m that. In fact, that
neat distinction isn’t something neurology supports, and we might do better
to follow the Renaissance ideal – to achieve in all spheres. At the moment, most of our respect is
reserved for the math side of things – for proof, for science, for good
empirical fact, for logic. And the moment we do that, we automatically consign
all matters of the heart and emotion to a box labeled unscientific, illogical,
unproven, fluffy. This is a dangerous
way to live – and as we start to use math to explore the heart, we find out
why.
The maths of being nice
In a
recent article in the New Scientist, Martin Nowak explains how he’s used
mathematics to explore human cooperation – and been able to show some
surprising and powerful results. For
evolutionary psychology, cooperation is fascinating: why would we evolve to
help each other, often to our own cost? Why should I tell you about a great job
opportunity if you’re more likely to get it than I am, or spend my weekend
painting your house when mine needs cleaning?
How does that help natural selection in my favor? There are five main ways we cooperate that do
act in our favor – some obviously, others more subtly:
- Ÿ kin selection – helping a close relative, I’m painting your house because you’re my mom
- Ÿ direct reciprocity – tit-for-tat, I help you paint so you’ll help me clean
- Ÿ indirect reciprocity – if I help you, other people will know and help me later
- Ÿ spatial selection – we’re neighbors, so we help each other and survive in clusters
- Ÿ group selection – we’re part of a group who all help each other, plus that means we do better than other groups
Martin Nowak’s mathematical models are a
neat, elegant way of showing how these different forms of cooperation work and
benefit us. As a strong religious
believer, he’s equally interested in looking at how his work overlaps with
religious beliefs:
I see the
teachings of world religions as an analysis of human life and an attempt to
help. They intend to promote unselfish behaviour, love and forgiveness. When
you look at mathematical models for the evolution of cooperation you also find
that winning strategies must be generous, hopeful and forgiving. In a sense,
the world's religions hit on these ideas first, thousands of years ago.
The power of forgiveness versus punishment
is a point to which he returns.
Punishment can be used to police cooperation – cooperate or else! – and
most people hold on to the belief that punishment works, or if at least it
should, or even if it doesn’t, we still need it, because not to have it would
just be… just be…
Not to have punishment would just be
forgiveness. “Who would have thought,”
says Nowak, “That you could prove mathematically that, in a world where
everybody is out for himself, the winning strategy is to be forgiving, and that
those who cannot forgive can never win?”
HeartMath
The
Institute of HeartMath has a similar intersection between “left-brain”
approaches to knowledge and a “right-brain” subject – except the “right-brain”
aspect, emotion, might not be in the brain after all. As we explored in Listen
to Your Heart-Brain, the heart has its own brain. Neurocardiology looks at how our heart’s
thoughts are communicated to the brain and the role that this plays in our
thinking, our life, and even our health.
The relationship between stress and heart-attacks has been known for
years, but this heart-health relationship is now being explored much more
widely and in much more detail. A
healthy metaphorical heart, seat of love and emotions, is intimately tied
together with a literally healthy heart.
We weren’t such fools, after all, all those years that we said the
heart, not the brain, is the seat of emotion.
Much of the Institute’s work and focus is
on individual health and helping individuals deal with their emotions – which
is also, inevitably, helping individuals deal with their relationships. We are too rooted in society, it turns out,
to deal with each individual as a separate entity. And our responses to each other are a crucial
part of our health. Interestingly, the
Institute also soon addressed the subject of forgiveness. A study compared the effect of feeling angry
or caring towards other people, by measuring secretory immunoglobulin A
(S-IgA). This antibody is a major part
of our immune system, and used to indicate our general immune functioning. The higher your S-IgA levels, the stronger
your immune system.
Anger, it turns out, has an immediate and
negative effect on our own ability to
fight disease and stay healthy. Suddenly
Michael Nowak’s mathematical findings start to make sense. Punishment really does hurt us more than the
person we punish, because our anger makes us vulnerable to disease and
illness. Forgiveness really is the way
to win and those who don’t forgive can never win.
The HeartMath blog has plenty more to say
about forgiveness, from the many ways it helps and heals your body, with
everything from back pain to depression, and also how to find the capacity to
forgive within ourselves, those things that help us let go of our grudges, our
pain, and our bitterness, be that music, reflecting on our own faults and
mistakes, remembering the feeling of being in love, or simply surrounding
ourselves with beauty.
Whatever happened, whoever’s fault, it is
time to forgive. To move forward and
evolve as a species, we need to take care of our hearts, we need to cooperate,
and we need to forgive. We cannot move from a fear-based, hate-based society into a society based on love without passing through that crucial arch, forgiveness. And of all the
virtues, the
greatest of these is love.
