Can You Trust Your Mind?

Do you believe your memory is correct?

Why does your memory of an event differ from someone else's who was there?

Unfortunately, we can't fully trust our own brain. It is arguably the most intricate system on the planet, but there is not one scientist that completely understands the workings of the brain. What we can all agree on is that it works in ways we aren't even aware of- such as the Sunk Cost Fallacy. The subconscious and super subconscious will have us do things and believe things that if our logical mind were in action would make us gasp in awe, (and sometimes shame!)

Our brains do an awful lot of work. There is so much stuff going on around us at any given time (eyes, ears, skin, nose, thoughts, etc) that if our brains allowed us to experience every stimuli, we would bounce right into the crazy house wearing a hug-me jacket. The only way we can function is because our brains have developed a filter.

When you need to focus you turn down the volume. This is because we just cannot handle too many impluses all at once. Over time our brain-filter has learned what we deem important and deliberately ignore the stuff that is useless to us.

This is also why we can hear our name called in a crowded room. This phenomenon is called the Cocktail Party Effect and is an example of our brain filtering the noise from what is important to us.

Our memories are a subjective representation of how we perceived an event. So what your memory may tell you is absolute fact, may be remembered differently by another person because of their perception at the time. Also, did you know that your memories actually change? Each time you remember something it is effected by your current beliefs and emotions. And our memories can even be influenced by others, and even manipulated.

Here is an interesting experiment to try. Watch the short video before reading on:

What do you think?

Do you still believe you can trust your brain?

Selective Attention is one of the most popular mind tricks in the world of psychology. It is used by preachers and terrorists, magicians and corporations, lawyers and governments and interrogators, and even teachers and salesmen.

It's not only what we say, but also what we don't say.

Mental manipulation is used to influence memories all the time. Legal cases are one frightening example. In one study, people were influenced greatly just by how a question was phrased. The participants were shown videos of car accidents. One group was asked how fast the cars were traveling when they "smached" into each other. The other was asked the same question but with the word "hit" replacing "smashed".

The group who heard the word "smashed" reported the cars were going an average of 7 mph faster. And when asked to talk about the experiment a week later, the "smashed" group even reported seeing broken glass around the cars, yet there was none in the video.

Question everything, even your own cognitive competency :)

❤