26 May How Our Brains Scramble Facts

If you were watching TV in the US in the late 1980s, you’ll probably remember the anti-drug ads with the egg—“this is your brain”—and then the egg cracked into a sizzling hot frying pan—“this is your brain on drugs.” But if neuroscience and psychology and behavioral economics tell us anything, it’s that the human brain scrambles itself—no drugs required! Dozens of cognitive biases—all well studied—mean good old homo sapiens is not as wise—or rational or objective—as we’ve cast ourselves to be. Unconscious mental shortcuts, ingrained social survival impulses, and evolutionary glitches complicate how we evaluate new information, form opinions, gauge risk, or change our minds…

http://www.sightline.org/2017/05/24/this-is-your-brain-on-facts/