September 25, 2012

"We are more likely to be receptive to good news than bad..."

"... and a team at UCL has gone some way to explaining why we prefer to look on the bright side."
"We believe the left inferior frontal gyrus is normally inhibiting other parts of the brain from learning from bad news. But by interfering with the left IFG we're releasing this inhibition," says [Cognitive neuroscientist Tali] Sharot...

Chris Chambers, a cognitive neuroscientist at Cardiff University, said one surprise was that TMS had such a specific effect, apparently without affecting other aspects of behaviour, such as emotional arousal or attention....

Should we try to base our views more on bad news? Probably not. The good news bias tends to be less common in people with depression, suggesting the optimists' view of life is good for our wellbeing and helps to motivate us.
If what we get wrong helps us live, there is a rightness that's different from truth. So much of what is beautiful and wonderful about human life is full of inaccuracies and distortions.

If you had the power to true us up would you dare use it?

16 comments:

Pastafarian said...

Althouse: "If you had the power to true us up would you dare use it?"

Generally, no.

That's one reason I don't argue against religion anymore: Most people are religious because it's man's natural, healthy state. "There is a rightness that's different from truth" is a good way to put it.

Still: As in all things, shades of grey exist. We can't allow garage mahal to go staggering around in a fog for his entire life, thinking that The Broken Window Fallacy is a prescription for economic nirvana.

jr565 said...

Always look on the bright side of life....
whoo hoo whoo hoo hoo hooo hoo hoo..

The Crack Emcee said...

If you had the power to true us up would you dare use it?

In a heartbeat.

edutcher said...

If all we did was look at the "realities", there'd be no human race.

YoungHegelian said...

"If you had the power to true us up would you dare use it?"

All in good time, madam. All in good time.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

The Crack Emcee said...

So much of what is beautiful and wonderful about human life is full of inaccuracies and distortions.

Like what? Examples.

Because from what I can see, they're all laughable,...

YoungHegelian said...

Crack,

You know how you're very much like the New Agers you so despise?

You, too, think you possess some sort of esoteric knowledge that the rest of us lack due to our clouded minds.

You, like them, are very Gnostic in your outlook.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I'm too apathetic to comment about this.

DADvocate said...

"We are more likely to be receptive to good news than bad..."

They had to do a study to tell us that?

The Crack Emcee said...

YoungHegelian,

Crack,

You know how you're very much like the New Agers you so despise?

You, too, think you possess some sort of esoteric knowledge that the rest of us lack due to our clouded minds.

You, like them, are very Gnostic in your outlook.


That's crazytalk, just like the claim I - an anti-cultist - want, or have tried, to start a cult. There's nothing esoteric about any of it, and no secrecy involved, like the Gnostics, or the group you are constantly defending. You are making this charge up - or projecting - but there's never been anything about what I've said that fits that profile.

I possess what used to called "horse sense" - the ability to see the obvious and not be talked out of it. I've never claimed to hold any special knowledge:

I just won't give in to your attempts to bullshit me, con me, or make me stop saying you're fools to go along with such ideas and behaviors.

Mitt Romney and his wife believe in out-of-this-world nonsense - THAT IS A FACT - and the evidence is continually building that the GOP - my party - is so blinded by their desperation to bring Barack Obama down that they're willing to elect this delusional charlatan to the country's highest office BY HIDING HIS MADNESS.

Cold fusion? That's not just pseudoscience - IT'S PURE PSEUDOSCIENCE!

The insult to our collective intelligence rivals even the insult of Mormonism's claims. (Sure, Joseph Smith found some gold plates after years of being busted for making the exact same claim and ripping people off. Fucking idiots.)

YH, if you want to live as Alice In Wonderland, be my guest, but I will NOT be joining you, or the Mad Hatter you're so enamored by,...

Paul said...

Look on the bright side... and learn from the mistakes of others (cause you won't live long enough to make them all yourself nor I doubt survive that long.)

Brother Murphy was an optimist, and so am I.

Wince said...

Evidently how some people deal "bumps in the road".

bagoh20 said...

I can't think about this until I know if this study is good news or bad?

All stories should start out with: "in good news today,...", or "Tragedy struck today, when..."

Stoutcat said...

Professor Althouse asks, "If you had the power to true us up would you dare use it?"

What?! A perfectly appropriate time for THE defining quote from Serenity and nobody jumps in? Okay, well then here goes:

"Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."

Anonymous said...

A while ago, I read an article about depression. The assumption going into the study was that depressed people had a distorted view of the world. What the reasearchers found that depressed people are actually less distorted in their perceptions than "normal" people.

Thus proving another age old maxim: The truth hurts.

Anonymous said...

A while ago, I read an article about depression. The assumption going into the study was that depressed people had a distorted view of the world. What the reasearchers found that depressed people are actually less distorted in their perceptions than "normal" people.

Thus proving another age old maxim: The truth hurts.