records and stabilizes the objective content of the activity. The resistance of the
object breaks the cycle of internal mental processes and provides an opening to the
outside world. Moreover, Vygotsky [32] showed that actions are social by nature;
they always take place in the presence of others and are mediated by signs. Recent
studies characterize the moderating role of social relations in the relationship
between the individual and their body as a conceptualization tool: the “current
(social or other) context influences the way in which a concept is represented in a
conceptual task and the extent people recruit embodied information to solve it”
[30].
According to these theoretical results, meaning is grounded in bodily processes
of perception and action. The organism’s bodily interaction with the environment is
of crucial importance to its cognitive processes [33]. What is meant here by the
‘body’ is not the body as a functional system with input and output, but rather, as
the enactive approach defines it, “an adaptive autonomous and therefore sensemaking system” [34]. From an anthropological perspective, Mauss had already
defined the body as the “primary technical object” [35], which appears therefore as
a support and provides meaning. “It is impossible for a man not to be permanently
changed and transformed by the sensory flow that runs through him. The world is
the product of a body which translates it into perceptions and meaning, one cannot
exist without the other. The body is a semantic filter” [36] (our translation).
From this perspective, phenomenology, which is specific to the experiential
aspect of emotion, can be linked to values. Here, ‘values’ represents what gives
meaning to action, although not exclusively as an abstract object to consciously
work towards. At a more primitive level, ‘values’ are more properties of a particular
type that are exemplified by contexts, objects or behaviours: emotions—such as
fear—link us with exemplifications of these evaluative properties—for example
danger [37]. In an emotional state, the body becomes prepared to potentially take
action and “the specific way it is prepared is interpreted, very naturally, as an
apprehension of some of the evaluative aspects of the environment. Here, then,
bodily sensations are not understood as simply the effect of thinking about the
environment, they play a direct role, by virtue of their phenomenology, as an
explicit presentation of their own objects, i.e. values. Emotions are what is felt by a
body that is prepared for action: it is therefore in this narrow sense that one can
say that emotion is an experience of value” (ibid., our translation).
Plunged into an unprecedented sensory universe, the operators at Fukushima
Daiichi had to redefine the meanings and values in their world. The scene was
apocalyptic: high levels of radioactivity, extreme temperatures, piles of debris,
aftershocks, floods, darkness and exploding reactors formed the context in which
they were required to take action. Decision making was shaped by their contact
with this material and social reality, physical challenges, and the way they behaved
and saw others behaving.
Individual commitment was influenced by the need to take action and the
resources required, the rules and shared representations of the action to be performed. Group behaviour is indeed determined by the image it has of its task [38].
In extreme situations, the construction of this image integrates current social
Decision-Making in Extreme Situations …
179
object breaks the cycle of internal mental processes and provides an opening to the
outside world. Moreover, Vygotsky [32] showed that actions are social by nature;
they always take place in the presence of others and are mediated by signs. Recent
studies characterize the moderating role of social relations in the relationship
between the individual and their body as a conceptualization tool: the “current
(social or other) context influences the way in which a concept is represented in a
conceptual task and the extent people recruit embodied information to solve it”
[30].
According to these theoretical results, meaning is grounded in bodily processes
of perception and action. The organism’s bodily interaction with the environment is
of crucial importance to its cognitive processes [33]. What is meant here by the
‘body’ is not the body as a functional system with input and output, but rather, as
the enactive approach defines it, “an adaptive autonomous and therefore sensemaking system” [34]. From an anthropological perspective, Mauss had already
defined the body as the “primary technical object” [35], which appears therefore as
a support and provides meaning. “It is impossible for a man not to be permanently
changed and transformed by the sensory flow that runs through him. The world is
the product of a body which translates it into perceptions and meaning, one cannot
exist without the other. The body is a semantic filter” [36] (our translation).
From this perspective, phenomenology, which is specific to the experiential
aspect of emotion, can be linked to values. Here, ‘values’ represents what gives
meaning to action, although not exclusively as an abstract object to consciously
work towards. At a more primitive level, ‘values’ are more properties of a particular
type that are exemplified by contexts, objects or behaviours: emotions—such as
fear—link us with exemplifications of these evaluative properties—for example
danger [37]. In an emotional state, the body becomes prepared to potentially take
action and “the specific way it is prepared is interpreted, very naturally, as an
apprehension of some of the evaluative aspects of the environment. Here, then,
bodily sensations are not understood as simply the effect of thinking about the
environment, they play a direct role, by virtue of their phenomenology, as an
explicit presentation of their own objects, i.e. values. Emotions are what is felt by a
body that is prepared for action: it is therefore in this narrow sense that one can
say that emotion is an experience of value” (ibid., our translation).
Plunged into an unprecedented sensory universe, the operators at Fukushima
Daiichi had to redefine the meanings and values in their world. The scene was
apocalyptic: high levels of radioactivity, extreme temperatures, piles of debris,
aftershocks, floods, darkness and exploding reactors formed the context in which
they were required to take action. Decision making was shaped by their contact
with this material and social reality, physical challenges, and the way they behaved
and saw others behaving.
Individual commitment was influenced by the need to take action and the
resources required, the rules and shared representations of the action to be performed. Group behaviour is indeed determined by the image it has of its task [38].
In extreme situations, the construction of this image integrates current social
Decision-Making in Extreme Situations …
179