8 traps into which our consciousness falls
Text: Grisha the Prophets
In the science of consciousness there is the concept of "cognitive distortion" - repeated mistakes in thinking that all people have. Some of these mistakes are not harmful at all (and one might even say that they are useful), but many lead to inaccurate judgments and to the fact that we do not think rationally. We talk about the most common mistakes that occur in our mind.
We trust more people in our group.
A common idea in sociology: we divide all people into groups and most of all love those who fall into the same group with us - say, work colleagues, friends, or even people with the same skin color. This is partly due to the hormone oxytocin, the "love molecule". In the brain, he helps us connect with people within our group. But, unfortunately, oxytocin works in the opposite direction: we fear all people outside the group, treat them with suspicion and even despise them. This is called "ingroup favoritism" - we overestimate the capabilities and value of our group at the expense of people we know worse. This social phenomenon appeared in ancient times, when humanity was divided into tribes.
We argue to win, not to get to the truth.
Everyone knows the phrase attributed to Socrates that "truth arises in a dispute." But the very idea of a dispute arose not at all for this: scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber put forward a theory (it is called the argumentation theory of reason), that in the course of the development of human society, people learned to argue and reason in order to gain power over each other. Modern people also depend on this: we continue to argue, even when all the facts are against us - because it is a tool of manipulation.
Mercier and Sperber believe that the ability to reason, ask questions and offer answers was not born to find the truth. We have learned to reason in order to convince others — and to be more careful when others try to convince us. When once again you google confirmation of your words in a dispute and find nothing - think about it, maybe you are just wrong and do not want to admit it. In ancient times, losing a dispute meant lowering our chances of survival, so our brain works like this.
We do not understand the probability
The human brain with great difficulty assesses the probability in everyday situations. A classic example: we are not afraid to get into the car, but many of us are very afraid of airplanes. At the same time, almost everyone knows that the chances of dying in a car accident are much greater than in a plane crash, but our brain does not agree with this. Although statistically the chance to die in a car is 1 to 84, and on an airplane, 1 to 5,000, or even 1 to 20,000. This is called a denial of probability — a cognitive error, which often leads us to exaggerate the risk of harmless things and not enough strongly afraid of really dangerous. In addition, emotions often interfere with consciousness: it is believed that the more emotions are associated with an unlikely event, the more likely it seems to us.
We have double standards in relation to other people.
In social psychology, there is the concept of "fundamental attribution error." It sounds difficult, but in fact it means a simple thing: we tend to condemn others, do not delve into the circumstances and justify ourselves. We explain the mistakes of other people by their personal problems and peculiarities, and we justify our behavior and mistakes by external circumstances. Let's say your colleague was very late for work, and even came drunk - it's terrible, he has problems with alcohol. And if you were late and came drunk - well, you have a difficult period in your life, you had to be distracted.
This mistake sometimes leads to the fact that we believe that everyone has the same circumstances, and therefore tend to condemn others. Therefore, for example, there is the phenomenon of fat-shaming: people tend to condemn fat people. For those who have never had problems with overweight, it seems that the circumstances are the same and people are just lazy to lead a healthy lifestyle; they do not take into account upbringing, metabolism, amount of free time, the possibility of personal choice or other factors. To think that everyone has the same circumstances is madness, but everyone does.
We are happy to follow the crowd
As the famous experiments of Solomon Asch have shown, every person has a tendency to conformism. Ash showed people a picture with four lines and asked which of them coincided in length with line X. We all see that this is line B. Ash sat down with people of fake neighbors who all called the wrong line C - and a third succumbed to the wrong version imposed by the majority. A person is inclined to believe in something with high probability if other people already believe in it. This is where social norms and behaviors arise that spread within the group. The tendency to agree with the majority is why one cannot trust sociological polls, their results influence the way people think, which they then interrogate.
We perceive all the numbers and values in relation to other
This is the so-called “binding effect” - we compare any new information (first of all, numbers) with the existing information, and most of all we are affected by the information that we heard first. Let's say a person comes to work and discusses a possible salary with an employer: the one who calls the first number will set the tone for the whole conversation. Frames will arise in the heads of both interlocutors, which will in one way or another be repelled by the first digit - any response sentence in their heads will be compared with it.
Marketers love to use the effect of binding: for example, when we come to a clothing store, we compare the difference in price between things - but not the price itself. Therefore, some restaurants include very expensive dishes on the menu, so that cheaper ones look attractive and reasonable next to them. Even when we are offered three options to choose from, we usually choose the medium one — not too cheap and not too expensive; this is why fast food usually has a small, medium and large size of drink.
We see coincidences and frequency where there are none
The famous Baader-Meinhof phenomenon: sometimes we suddenly notice things that we had not noticed before (especially if they began to have something to do with us), and we mistakenly believe that these things have become more. A classic example: a person buys a red car and suddenly begins to see red cars on the street all the time. Or a person comes up with some important figure for himself - and suddenly he begins to think that this figure appears everywhere. The problem is that most people simply do not understand that this is a mistake of thinking - and they believe that some things do happen with greater frequency, which can confuse them greatly. Therefore, we see coincidences where there are none - our brain begins to catch non-existent algorithms and repetitions from the surrounding reality.
Our brain thinks that we are other people in the future.
As studies show, when we think about ourselves in the future, those parts that are responsible for how we think about other people are activated in the brain. In other words, if you are asked to imagine yourself in ten years, your brain imagines some strange stranger. This leads to what is called hyperbolic discounting. (yes, another cumbersome phrase): we hardly think about the benefits for ourselves in the future - and we want to receive benefits as soon as possible, even if it is less. Let's say you rather eat something harmful to get instant pleasure instead of thinking about your health in the future. Consciousness lives in the present moment, so we postpone all unpleasant things for later. This phenomenon is of particular concern to doctors. (for obvious reasons) and economists (we don’t know how to spend money wisely and save it for later). One study related to food illustrates this mistake in thinking well: when people plan to eat during the week, 74% choose fruit. And when they choose, what would they eat right now - 70% choose chocolate.
Material was first published on Look at Me
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