Unfortunately, this is a fact of life. Political life too.
Recall the Swift Boat campaign.
When we hear the same information over and over again, true or not, we often end up believing it’s true.
That’s the conclusion from authors Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt who wrote (take a deep breath):
“Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”
Perhaps the winner of the world’s longest book title.
Funny how the brain gathers and store information.
Not like a computer hard drive at all.
First the facts go into the hippocampus, a section deep in the brain. Every time we get the information, we store it again and reprocess it. Eventually the information is gradually transferred to the cerebral cortex and is separated from the context in which it was originally learned.
So eventually we forget where the information came from in the first place and whether it was a credible source. This is known as source amnesia. It can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true.
The Swift Boat phenomenon.
Over the period of time – perhaps months – memories move from short-term hippocampal memory to long-term cortical storage. The source and credibility fade of that information fades. But its implications gain strength.
That may be why – over a period of weeks during the 2004 presidential campaign – the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Senator John Kerry had a negative effect on his popularity.
That’s why 18 percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth.
That’s why ten percent of of Americans think Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim, even though he is a Christian.
Campaign strategists know that if the message is memorable, it will resonate long after it has been debunked.
We also tend to remember information that matches up with our own views and discount contradictory information. This works emotionally too, as ideas can spread by their emotional appeal rather than by factual merits.
The authors of “Welcome To Your Brain…” wrote about lies and your brain recently in the New York Times.
Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton and Aamodt is a former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience.
How intelligence is influenced by genes and the environment.
The book explains how the human brain processes information, regulates our emotions and forms memories. They also cover topics such as how intelligence is influenced by genes and the environment, the differences between the brains of men and women and what happens when we dream.
Plus the book provides some good advice about how to stay brain healthy as you get older.
Click here to visit their blog.
We’ve got some games on our web site – Brain Games Software – to help you stay mentally stimulated and keep your brain healthy.
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