The most depressing discovery about the brain, ever

[Olm the Water King]

The most depressing discovery about the brain, ever

The most depressing discovery about the brain, ever

Marty Kaplan, AlterNet
27 Feb 2016 at 05:03 ET

Yale law school professor Dan Kahan’s research paper is called “Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government,” but for me a better title is the headline on science writer Chris Mooney’s piece about it in Grist: “Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math.”

Kahan conducted some ingenious experiments about the impact of political passion on people’s ability to think clearly. His conclusion, in Mooney’s words: partisanship “can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills…. [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.”

In other words, say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions. It turns out that in the public realm, a lack of information isn’t the real problem. The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are. We want to believe we’re rational, but reason turns out to be the ex post facto way we rationalize what our emotions already want to believe.

For years my go-to source for downer studies of how our hard-wiring makes democracy hopeless has been Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government at Dartmouth.

Nyan and his collaborators have been running experiments trying to answer this terrifying question about American voters: Do facts matter?

The answer, basically, is no. When people are misinformed, giving them facts to correct those errors only makes them cling to their beliefs more tenaciously.

...

 

[miss fortune]

this would explain SO much

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions. It turns out that in the public realm, a lack of information isn’t the real problem. The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are. We want to believe we’re rational, but reason turns out to be the ex post facto way we rationalize what our emotions already want to believe.

The bolded is a bit idealistic and I take it, the wishful thinking of the person writing the synopsis of the article.

Is this surprising? We rarely make decisions based soley on facts. There are other factors to life than just facts. There is also a perception of self-preservation that can override factual information.

Our personal interests often take precedence over sacrificing something now for something better later even if that is factual in nature.

Why do you think people find it difficult to lose weight? Because it is making decisions you know are right based on facts, but will not show immediate results. Tricks your brain. Even if you know better.

 

[Olm the Water King]

The bolded is a bit idealistic and I take it, the wishful thinking of the person writing the synopsis of the article.

Is this surprising? We rarely make decisions based soley on facts. There are other factors to life than just facts. There is also a perception of self-preservation that can override factual information.

Our personal interests often take precedence over sacrificing something now for something better later even if that is factual in nature.

Why do you think people find it difficult to lose weight? Because it is making decisions you know are right based on facts, but will not show immediate results. Tricks your brain. Even if you know better.

I see your point, but I think there's a big difference. When it comes to losing weight, your cravings, emotions get the best of you, but you still know cognitively how things are. With politics, the emotions even mess with the thoughts.

It's like "I know this is probably gonna harm me, but I can't control myself." With politics...it's a different story altogether.

 

[geedoenfj]

I had a professor back in the college who used to say: "your brain is perceiving only about 5% of the facts, because these are going through many filters on their way to your brain"
Media can be highly misleading and manipulative, statistics can be manipulated because they only want you to see what they choose for you to see..
That's why I try to avoid to have a strong opinion about many issues, because I always leave a little space for other possibilities ..

 

[Yama]

I remember talking to my professor about something like this not too long ago.

 

[Forever]

Whoever still thinks today that we don't go by our moral intuitions/inclinations..

Big and major sigh

 

[kyuuei]

And here I was thinking the most depressing thing about it is that it dies someday.

 

[Chrysanthe]

lol yes that does sounds depressing.... but I don't think hindered ability to logicate things isn't the MOST depressing...


The most depressing thing about the brain is that it possesses physical limitations and has boundaries to the pleasure it can experience as well as freedom of thought... not being able to create anything that hasn't been perceived or built into itself, and also not being able to shift its perception from the user's genetic nature and bias to think in a way that would benefit it most at any given time (being limited in communication to others as a result of not being able to think differently (otherwise conflict wouldn't exist (yes it would but at least everyone would understand why and accept it).)

Of course I have little to no experience with drugs and meditation or any mind altering shit in general, so I suspect they might be able to temporarily or permanently cure or at least heal one of the above conditions. But the average human has no time, will, nor satisfying proof (INFJs don't count as proof) of the powers that come with mind altering states, including myself.

 

[Reborn Relic]

But if, before they were shown the graph, they were asked to write a few sentences about an experience that made them feel good about themselves, a significant number of them changed their minds about the economy. If you spend a few minutes affirming your self-worth, you’re more likely to say that the number of jobs increased.

^You kind of ignored that part of the study.

 

[great_bay]

The title was so misleading. I thought it was something depressing like the brain stops loving.

 

[Forever]

[MENTION=25366]Chrysanthe[/MENTION] Oh ye of little faith.

 

[SpankyMcFly]

And here I was thinking the most depressing thing about it is that it dies someday.

"...Erich Fromm wondered why most people did not become insane in the face of the existential contradiction between a symbolic self, that seems to give man infinite worth in a timeless scheme of things, and a body that is worth about 98¢.” Ernest Becker

 

[Cellmold]

This is not surprising.

In fact it's plainly evident. But at least someone took the time to test, research and confirm it.

 

[anticlimatic]

This might be news to Te users, but Ti users are intimately aware of this mechanic.

 

[Bush]

This is a phenomenon, yes. And apparently not even those who write about the phenomenon aren't immune, either.

Nyan and his collaborators have been running experiments trying to answer this terrifying question about American voters: Do facts matter?

The answer, basically, is no.

In the entire history of the universe, no Fox News viewers ever changed their minds because some new data upended their thinking.

I know he's being hyperbolic.. but I do wonder whether Kaplan would change his tune when presented with a bunch of Fox News viewers who have incorporated new data into their thinking.

 

[Virtual ghost]

1. This is pretty much eveident to everyone who trully observes world around him.

The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are. We want to believe we’re rational, but reason turns out to be the ex post facto way we rationalize what our emotions already want to believe.

2. Actually there are people who are quite above average in being rational but they are usually painted as "people with poor social skills" , owners of a personality disorder(s) or freaks.



3. Why is this depressive ? This only proves that mainstream politics has to go away permanently if we want mentaly stabile public. Therefore going against it doesn't really have any real alternatives ... what is pretty awsome if you think about it properly.

 

[SD45T-2]

As a resident of California I am intimately aware of the politics making people bad at math phenomenon. Can you say unfunded liabilities?

 

[meowington]

The really depressing thing about this is that this goes way beyond political inclinations. People are simply incapable of objective thinking. Step 1 to grasping the truely objective is recognizing that whatever you think is already subjective to begin with, because after all the 1st subject is always ... you.