thoughtsignals

Two fascinating newspaper articles in recent days shed light on why people believe what they believe, even when those things aren’t true.

The Washington Post reports that people, even when told that certain things weren’t true, later recalled that they were in fact true.

The research is painting a broad new understanding of how the mind works. Contrary to the conventional notion that people absorb information in a deliberate manner, the studies show that the brain uses subconscious “rules of thumb” that can bias it into thinking that false information is true. Clever manipulators can take advantage of this tendency.

And California researchers have done a study suggesting that the minds of liberals and conservatives actually operate in different ways, with liberals’ brains being more open to new ideas:

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments, whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

I leave it up to you, gentle reader, to decide which political phenomena these studies help explain.

Related:  7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make (Lifehack.org)