Our human “operating system” isn’t primarily designed for calm, rational analysis.
No, it’s calibrated for survival.
In a time of saber-toothed tigers and rival tribes, a dose of skepticism, fear, and healthy caution was crucial for getting by.
But today, this built-in mechanism can easily be exploited. Why expend enormous resources to calm a worried public when you can achieve ten times greater effect by simply fueling the fear?
As every lawyer knows, proving that something doesn’t exist is a losing battle. But implying a conspiratorial plot? That’sdrama. That’s engagement.
So, we don’t always reward the truth, but rather what confirms our sense of being safe or threatened.
Of course, there are good reasons to be vigilant sometimes, but more often it’s about our brain being a little too fond of a simple story.
Perhaps it’s not that we are “stupid” and easily influenced. Perhaps it’s instead that we are efficient.
We are programmed to take the simplest and fastest route to what feels true; and sometimes, the truth simply isn’t what one wants it to be.
Consider this the next time you find yourself (or someone else) falling for an idea or claim that logically should have fallen flat:
- What are we actually buying into?
- And what does it cost us to believe what we want to believe?
