Here's why you're not smart enough

An interesting article in The New York Times describes how the way in which the brain forms memories can, over time, lead to false information from noncredible sources being reinterpreted as true. The article notes that this may explain why smear campaigns can be so effective in politics: those who spread misinformation ‘know that if their message is initially memorable, its impression will persist long after it is debunked’—and the rehashing of false information by victims during their defence simply adds to its plausibility in the long term.  It seems, then, that what we believe may often be based not on truth or credibility, but on repetition and emotional resonance. 

Revelations like this are unsettling because they reveal a discrepancy between the view we hold of ourselves as (on the whole) rational, truth-seeking, and open-minded, and the way in which we really process information. We may understandably worry that, if we’re not even built for selectively acquiring credible information and believing truths, we are surely fighting a losing battle when we try to improve ourselves through education and study. If, as a study cited by the article demonstrated, students at a top American university can be coaxed by simple repetition into believing the unsubstantiated claim that Coca-Cola makes an effective paint-thinner, what hope can there be for improving the minds of the rest of society?

One solution might be to publicise useful information about how the brain works, in a way that can be easily understood and usefully interpreted by the public.  Learning that our brains work in unexpected ways is unsettling only if it shatters long-held illusions about the way in which we think that we think. Better understanding of our own minds could help us remain alert to potentially misleading information (such as that discussed in the article), and could help us adjust the way in which we think so as to make the best of our mental abilities.  For example, that our attention span broadens with age suggests that the highly-focused study methods we adopt in our teens and early twenties may not be the best way to learn as we grow older, and understanding the various ways in which memory works could help improve our ability to remember the information we want to remember. These are speculative suggestions, but in a culture in which the public is constantly berated for failing to respond to calls to stop smoking, stop binge drinking, save money for old age, and do more exercise, it seems highly relevant to question why well-intended information campaigns can fail to hit home.  Educating people about their own minds could equip them with the cognitive tools they need to select and use important information to improve their lives.

Comments

[Thomas Stocker]

Hi Ms. Roache,

This is what the hypnotherapists, yogis, Dalai Lama, and anyone else that meditates on certain thoughts have been saying for years! Finally science is starting to catch up...

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20060828-000001&print=1
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1611

some less academically rigorous examples of how minds can grow and flourish with age and practicing emotional intelligence as well as intellectual intelligence.

Thanks!