Did Will Smith Experience an Amygdala Hijacking?
The Oscars is a big night, a spectacle grander than most. In attendance are the biggest stars and the biggest egos in Hollywood, Tinsel Town royalty all found together under one roof: the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Suffice to say those watching the award ceremony got more than expected this year.
The big story: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Oscars. What could have caused his aggressive behaviour? Let’s use neuroscience and psychology to explain Will Smith’s behaviour that night. This discussion is not about culpability, rather it focuses on behaviours and what was likely happening for Smith on a neurological level.
To begin, it is important to set the scene. You must remember the audience at the Oscars are crazy rich and beautiful celebrities, modern-day gods with worshipping fans across the world. Roasting the audience has been a tradition since the beginning of the awards ceremony. In fact, this tradition has been around for a very long time. It comes from the tradition of the medieval court jester, sometimes referred to as a licensed fool. It was the licensed fool’s job to entertain and lift spirits, and sometimes roasting the king and court, making them more human to their subjects, bringing them back down to earth.
The comedian’s duty in this setting is to poke fun at Hollywood royalty. But when comedians accept this duty, they must recognize the risks that come along with it. In this case an indignant King Will defending the honour of his Queen Jada and slapping the jester before the entire court. I wonder if there had been similar scenes in Tudor courts with some displeased royal slapping the jester, or worse?
There has been a lot of speculation about Will Smith’s state of mind that evening. Why did he behave in such an irrational and aggressive manner? Neuroscience has some explanations about what could have happened to him that evening. The straightforward answer is that he experienced a full-blown amygdala hijacking, and the world got a front row seat.
The amygdala is a region of the brain that activates an emotional response when we encounter a threat, either real or perceived. Think of the amygdala as a smoke detector. It alerts us to a threat of fire and can save our lives, but like a smoke detector it’s not very sophisticated. In fact, it’s kind of crude and very often goes off when there is no actual threat, like a smoke detector goes off at the whiff of burnt toast.
The amygdala prepares us for a fight or flight. When it takes the wheel, we have an amygdala hijacking. This is a psychological term for “losing it.” In this state the driver in the front part of the brain is down, the amygdala has hijacked the bus and taken the wheel, and we’re headed off road and towards a crash.
Under normal circumstances the front part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, comes into play. This part of the brain regulates our emotions and controls our urges. It does this by assessing threats and making executive decisions about how to respond. If the prefrontal cortex does its job, the individual should be able to regulate their response when the amygdala sends its alarm. But sometimes the amygdala hijacks that process.
When Smith perceived Rock’s joke as a threat to his wife’s emotional wellbeing, it is not surprising that he jumped to her defense. His amygdala temporarily hijacked his prefrontal cortex. An important factor to consider is if he had been drinking that night. If so, his prefrontal cortex would have been inhibited to some degree, and his ability to reason may have been impaired.
Video taken shows at first Smith was laughing with Rock when the comedian delivered his joke, and then after seeing his wife’s expression his laugher turned to rage. This likely produced strong feelings of empathy for his wife, and his empathy for his wife translated into his need to defend her.
We expect people to control their emotions when they are angry, and not take up violence. And yet most of us will experience an amygdala hijacking at some point, hopefully not one so public or violent.
After years of hearing his wife roasted by Chris Rock was it likely that Will Smith had anticipated Rock’s attacks? Was his brain primed for such an event? And how do we read Rock’s cool-headed response to the slap? Was he anticipating the possibility of an explosive reaction from one of the two Smiths? We’ll never know. This introduces the possibility that Smith’s brain had been primed for just such an event, only amplifying the amygdala hijacking.
This altercation is a teachable moment that demonstrates the devastation of an amygdala hijacking and the fallout afterwards. People lose their cool and even the famous and mighty fall, as we have just seen. We can all learn from this unfortunate event. The next time something “triggers” you, take a pause, breathe, and let your prefrontal cortex catch up to your speedy and pesky amygdala. You can learn to calm your amygdala in stressful situations.
Developing mindfulness practices is perhaps our best insurance against an amygdala hijacking. The amygdala drives us toward action and impulsive behaviour. It is evolutionary and instinctive, and it warns of real and perceived threats. The prefrontal cortex helps us to process those warnings and respond accordingly to threat.
Protect yourself from amygdala hijacking by observing the emotions that fan your anger. In doing so, you may stop yourself from doing something you will regret later. These are skills that can be learned. Mindfulness practices draw our attention to our thoughts and emotions, and when we do this, we can learn to observe those thoughts and emotions and then we can make decisions about how to respond to the situation at hand. The more we practice observing our thoughts and emotions, the better we become at engaging the decision-making part of our brain. In doing this we strengthen our brain’s ability to regulate our emotions.
We are always going to encounter hijackers on our path. Mindfulness practices can help us to recognize them and observe them while we still have control of the wheel. Developing the ability to observe our thoughts and emotions gives us the ability to stand back and make a conscious decision in how to respond to life. Rather than lose it, we watch it, observe it, and recognize our state of mind.
