Improving Biased Brains
A brain has a lot on its mind, some tem that creates “corrective forces Herrera wrote that this can lead “elastic thinking.” Lisa Feldman that might help and some that might that need to be applied to the handleto inaccurate and harmful concluBarrett, a professor of psychology at hurt — and all of which helps define bar to get the bicycle to stand up.” sions: “Your brain can instinctively Northeastern University, wrote in who we are. However it happens, people like trust people simply because they The Times that she teaches her stuAt times, it can trick us into to say that once you learn to ride a sound as if they know what they’re dents how to do that by having them trusting a liar or bike, you never forget. But there is talking about.” question their textbooks and their misplacing our more: It is a skill that can help the Research has shown that our beliefs — especially when it makes priorities. At othbrain remember other things too. brains conflate someone’s manner them uncomfortable. ers, it allows us The Times reported that a recent of speech and confidence with ex“I ask them to take on contradictto redefine misstudy found a correlation between pertise. “If you catch yourself graviing ideas and embrace the ambiguided beliefs aerobic fitness and recalling words tating toward someone extroverted guity,” she said. “And when failure or ride a bike, a that seem stuck on the tip of the and loud,” Mr. Herrera wrote, “then comes, as it inevitably will, I remind process that is tongue. seek another opinion.” them to treat their discomfort not harder for sciThat is a problem that worsens With the urgency effect, the brain as a damper but as a signal to press entists to model on.”withage,butthroughoutlife,weprioritizesimmediatesatisfaction than flying an airplane. have to contend with brain issues over completing important tasks. Alan Jasanoff’s book “The Bio
“Everyone knows how to ride a like “unconscious bias” and “the urPut another way: procrastination. logical Mind,” Ms. Barrett wrote in bicycle, but nobody knows how we gency effect.” “Yet again, thanks for nothing, a review, offers another important ride a bicycle,” Mont Hubbard, a The brain uses unconscious bias brain,” Mr. Herrera wrote. reminder about the brain: it is not a professor emeritus of mechanical as a shortcut, Tim Herrera wrote A recent study found that people mystical machine, as it is often myand aerospace engineering at the in The Times. “In general, these are less likely to perform a large, imthologized to be, but rather a “gooey, University of California, Davis, told mental leaps are essential: Imagine portant task without a deadline than bloody tangle of cells, dripping with The Times. if you had to analyze every single a small, urgent one. “This was true chemicals.”
He said the brain receives sensory sensory stimulus your brain took in, even if the outcome of the smaller “You are not merely your brain — information and has a control systhen base decisions off those analytask was objectively worse than that your body and the broader circumses,” he said. of the larger one,” he wrote. stances of your life also make you
But the brain also encodes culBut it is possible to rework some of who you are,” she said. tural biases in a similar way. Mr. the brain’s less desirable traits with