A Mind of its Own
From HunterWiki
I just finished reading this excellent, if troubling, book by Cordelia Fine. Throughout the book she catalogs a wide array of wayward tendencies that our minds exhibit. Each of her assertions (That our brain is vain, immoral, deluded, pigheaded, bigoted or weak willed, to name a few) is backed up by a number of psychology experiments which on the one hand make you laugh, but on the other make you shudder. Of course, as she predicts, your vain brain will refuse to admit that in a similar experiment you may have behaved like those hapless guinea pigs, but perhaps some introspections will help (though I doubt it).
Some of the more fascinating sections include experiments which measure our perceived morality. For instance, we regularly judge ourselves based on our intentions, but others based on the actual results. So if you intended to donate to charity you give yourself the credit, even if you didn't. But this 'charity of the brain' is not extended to others (except those whom we love). There was also an amusing experiment where a number of seminary students were asked to deliver a talk on 'The Good Samaritan', and in their rush to deliver it, they walked right past an person in need. How often do we neglect our moral duty because we're in a hurry? Or the classic experiment where people shock other volunteers to death (I saw a show recently which duplicated most of the results). The problem (she maintains) is that we're very susceptible to external subtle pressures. Everything from a purported expert telling us kill someone in a gentle but firm way, to the aroma we have recently smelt, to the freebies the marketers entice us with, to the last video we watched (people who have recently watched a disturbing video are more likely to condemn someone when they're jurors on a totally unrelated issue). Even more disturbing is the degree to which our perceptions of reality can be incorrect! What we perceive to have happened can be affected by a word or question in a previous conversation, by the aroma in the room, or other such subtle factors. We also have a happy habit of misremembering all our mistakes, and over-exaggerating our successes.
The situation is not entirely hopeless, as of course in every experiment there are those who rise above their baser nature, but it is inescapable that they are consistently in the minority. All the more credit to them, may we one day join their ranks!
Perhaps the most helpful chapter for me was the one on 'The Weak-willed Brain'. In it she catalogues how our subconscious can often thwart our best intentions (like how your thoughts race when you're in a hurry to fall asleep). However she also gives a series of recipes for bringing our unruly subconscious under control. As usual, these usually involve a lot of effort and retraining before our brain starts to work on our side. Often it seems the problem with our brain is laziness (efficiency, my vain brain prefers to call it). Our subconscious tends to impel us to do what we have habitually done, so any change is hard. It also strives to minimize work in other areas, and as a result is bigoted (classifying a whole swath of people with one term is much more efficient than evaluating each independently).
Ultimately I found the book a fascinating study of human nature. Be warned: If you think people are intrinsically good, this book is not for you. The sheer effort it takes to coax a higher level of thinking out of us should dissuade anyone from that view. This book documents our internal struggles to be better than we are, though not as poetically as Romans 7:14-25. The studies in this book underline and demonstrate what scripture made clear long ago: 'The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?' (Jer 17:9)
