Ease Of Mind
Best put your mind at ease, because brains are lazy as f*%k. The part of the brain where we do all rational and cognitive hard labor, the Cerebral Cortex, actually cost a lot of energy to function, so our natural, default state of mind is to let the smaller primitive brain and the subconscious do all of the repetitive tasks that can be done on auto-pilot.
Image by pasja1000 - source: Pixabay
Like everything else in nature, our brains to choose the path of least resistance. This is called cognitive ease or cognitive fluency, and is nothing more than a measure of ease with which our brains process situations or information. The easier the brain processes the information, the more likely we are to feel positive about that information. There are many ways we can see this and there are many ways our brains are eased into accepting information.
For example, everything familiar to us brings peace and ease of mind. Our brains have evolved to detect danger, and anything new is a potential threat to our carefully constructed world and world-view. If you ever wondered why we're generally not too keen on change, and why our resistance to change grows while growing older, this might help understand that. You know what's also easier to process? Information that confirms our current world-view, our current ideas and ideals; we all suffer from some amount of confirmation bias because of this.
This sense of familiarity, the experiencing of that which makes us feel safe and comfortable, can also be manufactured, by simply repeating the message over and over again; this has been known and used in marketing on a scientific level with multinationals spending billions on teams of psychologists and behavioral experts, so they can most effectively train our brains to associate their product with that safe sense of familiarity, by repeatedly exposing them to just the right words or just the right visuals. This works, whether you're conscious of it or not, it's just how our biological mental machinery works.
If you want proof of this, research has shown that the more often you hear a certain song, the more you will appreciate it. Even if you didn't think anything at all about it the first time you heard it, after hearing it a dozen times you recognize the tune, and you start not liking it less. Future stars that are designated to be that by the market forces in the music industry, will be played on the main networks and music stations on the hour; their way of saying "we will make you like it, whether you want to or not".
Image by johnhain - source: Pixabay
Or think about food; we train ourself to like some tastes by literally familiarizing ourself with them, often under threats of allowances being denied by our parents... The point is that we need ease of mind. We need our world to make sense and that world is actually our mental model of that world. This is why we feel personally attacked, when in fact only our beliefs are attacked. This is the reason why that old fart down the street won't listen to reason, and stubbornly persists in the world-view that served his sense of safety for so long.
But most important of all, this is why it takes cognitive effort to learn something new, or even to be willing to learn something new. Our natural confirmation bias is nowadays multiplied by external factors like commerce and search-engines. We must therefore make the conscious effort to expose our minds to differing views, ideas and ideals. To have an open mind means giving up on ease of mind a lot of the time; the mental door is one that takes effort to keep even slightly opened.
So next time when you read an article headline and think "That author must be crazy to think this", don't immediately click away. When you search the internet, don't search for "why apples are good for you" if you're already convinced that apples are good for you, but go for the open question "are apples good for you?" Also, when you read my posts, or anyone's posts, keep firmly in mind my confirmation bias, and the mere fact that I usually write about stuff I already formed a rather firm opinion on; so read the comments that disagree over anything else, look for other articles that challenge mine. We can't escape who we are, but we're damn well able to challenge our own beliefs and convictions. And each other's, of course ;-)
The Illusion of Truth
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, keep steeming!
Recent articles you might be interested in:
| Latest article >>>>>>>>>>> | Stupid Poor People |
|---|---|
| Ignorance Is Bliss | The Sinister Left |
| Now You Know | Life After Game Of Thrones |
| Eternal Shock | Huge Perspective |
Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!
Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:
Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO
@helpie is a WITNESS now! So please help @helpie help you by voting for us here!
