{"id":14069,"date":"2017-09-02T12:06:17","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T19:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pocketwisdominsights.com\/pwicolab\/?p=14069"},"modified":"2017-12-02T00:24:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T08:24:21","slug":"the-neuroscience-of-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pocketwisdominsights.com\/pwicolab\/healthcare\/recovery-co-lab\/recovery-co-lab-blogs\/third-party\/the-neuroscience-of-change\/","title":{"rendered":"The Neuroscience of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Opening Insights: Change Your Mind<\/h2>\n

A You Are Not So Smart<\/em> article\/podcast by David McRaney, dated January 13, 2017, explores the realities of the neuroscience of changing our minds. The article touches on the problems that people encounter when trying to change. He communicates the research showing that the problem of accepting and learning new information creates a LIFE-THREATENING response in the brain.<\/p>\n

Informational Insights: Can't Be Wrong!<\/h2>\n
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We don\u2019t treat all of our beliefs the same.<\/p>\n

If you\u00a0learn that the Great Wall of China isn\u2019t the only man-made object visible from space, and that, in fact, it\u2019s actually very difficult to see the Wall compared to other landmarks, you\u00a0update your model of reality without much fuss.\u00a0Some misconceptions we give up readily, replacing them with better information when alerted to our ignorance.<\/p>\n

For others constructs though, for your most cherished beliefs about things like climate change or vaccines or Republicans, instead of changing your mind in the face of challenging evidence or compelling counterarguments, you\u00a0resist. Not only do you\u00a0fight belief change for some things and not others, but if you\u00a0successfully deflect such attacks, your challenged beliefs then grow\u00a0stronger.<\/p>\n

The research shows that when a strong-yet-erroneous belief is challenged, yes, you might experience some temporary weakening of your convictions, some softening of your certainty, but most people rebound and not only reassert their original belief at its original strength, but go beyond that and dig in their heels, deepening their resolve over the long run.<\/p>\n

Psychologists call this the backfire effect, and this episode is the first of three shows exploring this well-documented and much-studied psychological phenomenon, one that you\u2019ve likely encountered quite a bit lately.<\/p>\n

In this episode, we explore its neurological underpinning as two neuroscientists at the University of Southern California\u2019s Brain and Creativity Institute explain how their latest research sheds new light on how the brain reacts when its deepest beliefs are challenged.<\/p>\n

By placing subjects in an MRI machine and then asking them to consider counterarguments to their strongly held political beliefs, Jonas Kaplan\u2019s and Sarah Gimbel\u2019s research, conducted along with neuroscientist Sam Harris, revealed that when people were presented with evidence that alerted them to the possibility that their political beliefs might be incorrect, they reacted with the same brain regions that would come online if they were responding to a physical threat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe response in the brain that we see is very similar to what would happen if, say, you were walking through the forest and came across a bear,\u201d explains Gimbel in the episode. \u201cYour brain would have this automatic fight-or-flight [response]\u2026and your body prepares to protect itself.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the researchers, some values are apparently so crucial to your\u00a0identity, that the brain treats a threat to those ideas as if they were a threat to your very existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember that the brain\u2019s first and primary job is to protect ourselves,\u201d explains Kaplan in the show. \u201cThe brain is basically a big, complicated, sophisticated machine for self-protection, and that extends beyond our physical self, to our psychological self. Once these things become part of our psychological self, I think they are then afforded all the same protections that the brain gives to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does the brain take something that is previously neutral and transmutate it into a value that it then protects as if it were\u00a0flesh and bone? How do neutral, empirical facts about temperature and carbon emissions become politicized? How does an ideological stance on immigration reform become blended with personal identity? We explore those questions and more on this episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast.<\/p>\n

Sources: https:\/\/youarenotsosmart.com\/2017\/01\/13\/yanss-093-the-neuroscience-of-changing-your-mind\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Possibilities for Consideration: No Communication When Nobody Can Hear<\/h2>\n