Some links about how your brain sometimes fails so that what you think is true may not be right.
The brain has limited capacity to perceive and remember, and it makes choices we're not aware of
How much we can visually take in and what we remember are subject to limitations in signal capacity and storage space. The brain adapts by making a lot of choices outside of our conscious awareness, new research shows. "Forgetting seems disadvantageous, but plays an essential role in maintaining the efficiency of memory operations," the researchers wrote.
What you know influences what you see.
Once you interpret visual stimulus in a certain way, you'll continue to interpret it in the same way now and the next time you encounter the stimulus
You're not only seeing what is actually before you; you're seeing what your brain is telling you is there.
TheUpshot, Brendan Nyhan
This finding helps us understand why my colleagues and I have found that factual and scientific evidence is often ineffective at reducing misperceptions and can even backfire on issues like weapons of mass destruction, health care reform and vaccines. With science as with politics, identity often trumps the facts.
Learn about your own morality, ethics, and/or values, while also contributing to scientific research
Why do people disagree so passionately about what is right? Why, in particular, is there such hostility and incomprehension between members of different political parties?
If you think your moral values are about logic or facts, think again.
... people understand the world in ways that suit their preexisting beliefs and ideological commitments. Thus in controlled experiments both conservatives and liberals systematically misread the facts in a way that confirms their biases.
As Loftus puts it, "just because someone says something confidently
doesn't mean it's true." Jurors can't help but find an eyewitness's
confidence compelling, even though experiments have shown that a
person's confidence in their own memory is sometimes undiminished
even in the face of evidence that their memory of an event is false.
. . .
One thing the report comes out solidly in favor of is treating
the lineup as a double-blind scientific experiment-neither the
witness nor the presiding officer should know in advance whether
the suspect is in the lineup. "Double-blinding is central to the
scientific method because it minimizes the risk that experimenters
might inadvertently bias the outcome of their research, finding only
what they expected to find," the report concludes. But it leaves
the question of exactly how police departments should implement
double-blind lineups unanswered.
The most disconcerting aspect of human memory is not that we forget things; it's that we falsely remember them.
We know for a fact that at least 225 men and women have been convicted of serious crimes because witnesses convincingly, yet mistakenly, named them as the culprits. . . .
Overall, the results of the study further substantiate the idea that human memory is not recorded but constructed. We recall events and details by association, using basic emotional, tactile, and visual cues to piece together a memory. Sometimes, that process manufactures jumbled falsehoods.
You have a total of three brains: the reptilian brain, the paleo-mammalian brain, and the rational brain.
Your mind has been infiltrated. Your logical and conscious prefrontal cortex is ever thwarted by powerful saboteurs hiding within the dark realm of your subconscious. The usurpers of your decision-making processes are none other than the ignorant reptilian brain stem and emotional limbic system. They torture you with sadness for the slightest defiance. They drug you with narcotic neurochemicals to reward your obedience. This diabolical duo is responsible for all forms of irrational human behavior, such as racism, war, and marriage. Your only defense against these illogical bastards is to base your decisions on cold, hard numbers.