Both Mary Shelley and F. Scott Fitzgerald did an amazing job of displaying the effects of isolation in their stories, but how often do we see similar impacts of isolation in real life? It is not often that we see isolation affect us to the magnitude that it affected Victor and Gatsby, but from our studies, we know that isolation has similar effects on us.

How do we make decisions?

We need to first discuss how we make decisions. In an article published by Open University “The Psychology of Decision Making”, the processes that go into our decision making are “framing the problem, using information, problems of judgment, post-decision evaluation” (par 4).  The first is basically the way we view the problem or the way we explain it, the second is the way we look for information on the problem (Open University, par 5-10). The latter is very important and is often affected by our bias. Lastly, problems of judgment are the moments that we make our decisions and post-decision evaluation is when we look back at the decision that we just made. All four of these revolve around the way we process information, cognitive processing. Our cognition can be greatly affected when we are isolated from others.

Cognitive Bias

When we isolate ourselves from other people, we are left with nothing but our thoughts, ambitions, and ideas. We then begin to exclusively look for ways to justify our ideas because we don’t have anyone to disagree with us.  In the article “What is Cognitive Bias?” by Kendra Cherry, looking for only information to support our ideas is one of the characteristics of Cognitive bias, “a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them” (par 1). Another characteristic is “Assuming that everyone else shares your opinions or beliefs” (Cherry, par 7). With Cognition playing a huge role in our decision-making, we can see how cognitive bias can negatively impact the paths that we take.

Connection to the novels

Everyone is cognitively biased, but how can some people have it worse than others? One example is isolation. Although we are all biased with our ideas, talking to others helps us take a step back and reevaluate our thoughts. We often can’t see the flaws in our ideas and need others to point them out. However, when we isolate ourselves, we can’t have those discussions with others. This leads to poor decision-making because we only look at the positives of our ideas. This is where our research in psychology has a strong connection with both Frankenstein and The Great Gatsby. From Shelley’s novel, Victor was obsessed with the origin of life, his constant reassurance of the idea to make the monster is an example of cognitive bias. To the readers, Victor’s ideas were insane and that’s probably what his fiancé/adopted sister, father, brother, and classmates would have said if he discussed it with them. Left with only his bias and poor decision-making Victor became lost and insane. Similarly, Gatsby became consumed with his plan to getting wealthy and win Daisy’s heart. He isolated himself from everyone in his journey to gain Daisy’s love. This path was very self-destructive for him, as he had to create a new persona for himself. If he allowed people to get close to him and help him with his ideas, he probably would have made better decisions.