What is your brain doing to trick you now?
In my last blog, I commented on the amusing bumper sticker that read, "Don't believe everything you think." This bumper sticker was not just amusing, it was is also incredibly profound.
Researchers continue to find evidence that shows our thinking is affected by a multitude of subtle factors. These factors often cause us to make suboptimal or even poor decisions.
Cordelia Fine, a psychologist at University of Melbourne in Australia, has written a brilliant book titled A Mind of Its Own that summarizes much of the current research on how our brains trick us into thinking we are smarter, kinder, and better looking than we really are. For the next few blog posts, I am going to review her book.
In the first chapter titled "The Vain Brain," Cordelia documents how we are preconditioned to process facts in ways that allow us to see ourselves in the most positive light. Sometimes, the brain acts as a circus mirror to distort our view of our self. But unlike the circus mirror that makes us fatter or shorter, this mirror only acts to make us more beautiful, more intelligent, and nicer than we really are.
For example, as Cordelia recounts in her book, psychologists gave a group of test subjects a series of puzzles to solve. After the puzzle-solving sessions, the subjects were given the test results. Some subjects were told they had done extraordinarily well and were in the very top percentiles of all puzzle solvers. Other people were told they had done surprisingly poorly.
After the test, the subjects were asked about the relationship between puzzle-solving and overall intelligence. Guess what? The subjects who were told they had done extraordinarily well felt puzzle-solving ability was a very good indicator of overall intelligence. Those who did poorly dismissed puzzle-solving ability as an arcane, irrelevant skill often practiced by people who had too much time on their hands.
Selective memory is one of the vain brain's greatest assets. Working like an unscrupulous prosecuting attorney, the vain brain does everything it can to bring facts to our consciousness that supports the idea that we are a good person, and ignores ideas contrary to what we want to believe.
When reading this chapter, I could not help but think of Lauren Cleari, the young woman who destroyed her marriage and crushed her husband on the FOX game show "The Moment of Truth." Lauren went on national television and admitted she had committed adultery.
But she didn't stop there. She told the interviewer she had married the wrong man and should have married her ex-boyfriend.
It is no surprise that marriages sometimes end, but the way Lauren ended hers was cruel and humiliating for her husband. The amazing thing is, after she did this shameless act, Lauren told the show's host she honestly believed she was (still) a good person.
How did her brain do that? She simply remembered some of the good things she had done in the past and ignored the devastatingly heartless thing she had just done.
Decision-Making Best Practice #1: There is a little of Lauren Cleri in all of us. Always remember, our own brain is a master of rationalization and selective memory. We tend to judge others much more harshly than we judge ourself.
Researchers continue to find evidence that shows our thinking is affected by a multitude of subtle factors. These factors often cause us to make suboptimal or even poor decisions.
Cordelia Fine, a psychologist at University of Melbourne in Australia, has written a brilliant book titled A Mind of Its Own that summarizes much of the current research on how our brains trick us into thinking we are smarter, kinder, and better looking than we really are. For the next few blog posts, I am going to review her book.In the first chapter titled "The Vain Brain," Cordelia documents how we are preconditioned to process facts in ways that allow us to see ourselves in the most positive light. Sometimes, the brain acts as a circus mirror to distort our view of our self. But unlike the circus mirror that makes us fatter or shorter, this mirror only acts to make us more beautiful, more intelligent, and nicer than we really are.
For example, as Cordelia recounts in her book, psychologists gave a group of test subjects a series of puzzles to solve. After the puzzle-solving sessions, the subjects were given the test results. Some subjects were told they had done extraordinarily well and were in the very top percentiles of all puzzle solvers. Other people were told they had done surprisingly poorly.
After the test, the subjects were asked about the relationship between puzzle-solving and overall intelligence. Guess what? The subjects who were told they had done extraordinarily well felt puzzle-solving ability was a very good indicator of overall intelligence. Those who did poorly dismissed puzzle-solving ability as an arcane, irrelevant skill often practiced by people who had too much time on their hands.
Selective memory is one of the vain brain's greatest assets. Working like an unscrupulous prosecuting attorney, the vain brain does everything it can to bring facts to our consciousness that supports the idea that we are a good person, and ignores ideas contrary to what we want to believe.
When reading this chapter, I could not help but think of Lauren Cleari, the young woman who destroyed her marriage and crushed her husband on the FOX game show "The Moment of Truth." Lauren went on national television and admitted she had committed adultery.
But she didn't stop there. She told the interviewer she had married the wrong man and should have married her ex-boyfriend.
It is no surprise that marriages sometimes end, but the way Lauren ended hers was cruel and humiliating for her husband. The amazing thing is, after she did this shameless act, Lauren told the show's host she honestly believed she was (still) a good person.
How did her brain do that? She simply remembered some of the good things she had done in the past and ignored the devastatingly heartless thing she had just done.
Decision-Making Best Practice #1: There is a little of Lauren Cleri in all of us. Always remember, our own brain is a master of rationalization and selective memory. We tend to judge others much more harshly than we judge ourself.
Labels: cordelia fine, rationalization, selective memory
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