Faulty Powers

If visions of tearing your apartment apart looking for that receipt you saw five minutes ago aren't enough to convince you of the klugey-ness of our minds, take a minute and read your horoscope. Mine says: "Because of financial gains lately, you could fall into a new way of thinking and spend money too quickly. Be aware of this and take an attitude of easy-does-it." That actually means something to me despite its bland generality (I just got paid!) and odds are that your horoscope will somehow also carry a ring of truth. For some reason, the more general or vague a descriptive statement is, the greater the human tendency to believe that it is specifically about us. Late-night infomercials and used-car salesmen also use this weakness to sell us things we don't need or cars that don't work. 

And why are humans so prone to believe absolutely anything from the existence of the Loch Ness monster to Atlantis? Marcus explains that "evolution has left us distinctly gullible … the systems that underlie our capacity for belief are powerful, they are also subject to superstition, manipulation and fallacy. Beliefs, and the imperfect neural tools we use to evaluate them, can lead to family conflicts, religious disputes and even war." Again, he argues our brains didn't evolve in a way that allowed us to thoroughly evaluate how well our beliefs represent reality.

Our older subconscious brain moves reflexively ("We're hungry, eat that mushroom now"), while our newer prefrontal cortex struggles to catch up with other alternatives ("Check your guidebook to see if it's poisonous or wait until we get to camp and eat some gorp"). Marcus theorizes that "the human tendency to most clearly remember information that seems consistent with our beliefs [or emotions] makes it very hard to let those beliefs go." So the next time you get into an argument with your spouse and he or she snaps, "You only hear what you want to hear," you can reply, "We all do. We've evolved that way."

But before you despair that humans are doomed to a life of lost keys, irrational beliefs and false memories, Marcus does supply us with a whole host of ways to trains our brains to act more rationally. My personal favorite is his first, "Whenever possible, consider alternative hypotheses." He recommends forcing yourself to come up with a list of alternatives even if you are absolutely certain that your husband is breaking drinking glasses out of spite and not because the sink is a little too deep for its intended purposes. Some of his other tips also involve forcing your brain to get out of the habit of relying on its more instinctual (and less reliable) thought processes and practice using our more conscious frontal lobes. This kind of advice may seem obvious when you read them but try and think about the last time you actually took advice such as, "Whenever possible, don't make important decisions when you are tired or have other things on your mind." Or "Always weigh benefits against costs."

Sounds easy but as Marcus notes, few of us rarely consider what else we could be doing that's of more value (spending time with your partner or family, calling up an old friend, writing a thank-you note) than watching a "CSI" marathon on TV. And if worst comes to worst, and you lose your keys and are late to work because of it, you can simply tell your boss, it's my brain's fault.

© 2008