The Blind SpotOr

Why we ignore unpleasant things

By khappucino

There is an interesting thing that happens when we hear ideas or information that we don’t agree with or that go against our strongly held beliefs, our brain ignores them. So in a way… our brain has a ‘blindspot’ to such things. The concept comes from the Theory of Motivated reasoning. A breakdown of the key mechanisms can be found in (Jacobsen:Perception, Memory, and the Partisan Polarization of Opinion on the Iraq War.) I learned of this theory when I was in B school and found this reference recently.

1. Selective Judgement – the idea that if you are presented with data or an idea that counters your strongly held beliefs, you will spend more energy trying to disprove or otherwise marginalize the argument.

2. Selective Perception – people will tend to absorb the message correctly if it is consistent with their strongly held beliefs.

3. Selective Memory – people will tend to remember things that are consistent with their beliefs and have a tendency to forget things that are not consistent with their beliefs.

4. Selective Exposure – people will tend to do an information search for things that reinforce their beliefs and will tend to avoid situations that challenge their beliefs.

This may seem like common sense, but it is interesting that our brain has a tendency to ‘ignore’ facts when they paint a picture that we don’t like. If you’ve ever been in an argument with someone, and you are stating something like 2+2 = 4 and you can’t get them to agree, then you’ve experienced this, or perhaps you’ve been on the lack of agreement side.

Why is this an important concept? There are a lot of things in life that are unpleasant, but just because they are unpleasant doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take measure and

recognize them.

So in order to help with this problem, here is a thought I came up with the other day during a conversation about this sort of thing. It’s possible I have seen this somewhere but as far as I recall I don’t remember seeing it somewhere.

The reception of ideas can have two degrees of freedom. (Of course there are more but to make things simple let’s use two)

Dimension 1: Things that fit our IDEALIZED worldview and REALITY.Dimension 2: Things that we would value as GOOD and things that we would value as BAD.

That gives us 4 basic combinations:

Things that fit our idealized worldview that we think are good.

Things that fit our idealized worldview that we think are bad.

Things that fit our reality as we experience it, which we also consider good.

Things that fit our reality as we experience it, which we also consider bad.

You may ask what is ideal and bad? Well one example might be the idea that, in an ideal world, bad things can happen but they are just a matter of being unlucky.

Now what matches reality and is also bad? One example could be the idea that infidelity is common because our

natural impulse is to do so.

Reality + Bad is the one I like to call the BLINDSPOT.

This is the particular quadrant of the matrix that I think people have the most trouble with. People naturally have trouble accepting ugly truths. What is important I think, is to realize that we actually do process information in this way. This allows you to understand why you may make some decisions or react in certain ways to things you don’t like.

The BLINDSPOT might stop you from seeing things that are beautiful as well. The idea perhaps that people have natural impulses that make them behave badly increases the esteem of those who can control their behavior. Think of this as looking back before you change lanes…. Think of eliminating the BLINDSPOT as seeing the matrix…. Think of it as taking the red pill….

Sometimes to find your own way, you have to look

into they Abyss.

If the you find that the rules of the game are rigged against you, you

can either exploit them or find your own game that suits your path in

life.