Oh, Say Can You See?

It’s called the red beetle effect. At least, at the sales seminar I attended, that’s what “they” called it, the powers that be for executive sales training. Isn’t it odd, how much money companies pay to the most random organizations to boost sales? “Our 4th quarter projections are tanking. Quick, let’s call Tony Robbins.” Cue the funky hand signals and lots of high fiving. Maybe your organization needs a psychology expert so you can hypnotize your customers into submission. Perhaps you should invest thousands in diction coaches so everyone can speak like a midwestern newscaster. Is enneagram training what you need, so you know to hire only 7s or make sure your 4s are holed away in a sad office creating the ads? Better yet just get someone to coach everyone on how to move cheese. Bottom line - some folks are cut out for sales, and some are not. I am not. Yet, I excelled in that environment for many years. My personal theory is that I hypnotized my bosses, but that’s not even what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about life and the world and our brains. See? Yep. That’s pretty much it. How do we see? Moreover, do you even? Back to those red beetles.

The premise: pretend I drive a red Volkswagen Beetle. Pretend I just bought one, just hit the streets of Forney. Prior to this moment, I never gave red beetles a thought. I never contemplated their existence, never compared the different hubcap options, never noticed how many were hardtops vs convertibles, until this moment. Now, not only do I see basically nothing but Volkswagen Beetles on the streets, they’re all red! Why, if I had a dollar for every red beetle I’ve seen this week, I’d be driving something a lot nicer than a beetle! Insert laughing emoji. I did some googling just now. The official term is selective attention and confirmation bias, aka the Baader-Minehof effect. When you learn or find something interesting, your brain files that thing away as important in a way it never did before. The file folder keeps popping open each time you see that thing. Your brain starts making tally marks each time the file folder opens. Brain to Dina - “Wow, everyone just ran out and bought a red beetle! I’ve literally never seen one in Forney before and I’ve seen 27 this week alone.” Incorrect. I just never placed any importance on that object, so my file folder wasn’t popping open. Leave it to me to have a faulty folder popper opener.

Now, table all those thoughts and ponder with me, if you will, what it’s like for adult human brains to form opinions. Why is pink my favorite color? Why do I always feel more confident when I wear black? Why do I love old furniture and velvet things? Is it because my brain says that’s important? I can see that I developed clear bias in relation to these things, ie that I think they’re superior things to appreciate and attach to. What about things that we vehemently dislike? Are those psychologically developed biases as well? Turns out, yes. There’s a thing called a cognitive bias codex. Now that I found it, perhaps I will start seeing codex posters everywhere I look. According to this index, our brains are broken down into 4 areas: What should we remember, Need to act fast, Not enough meaning, and Too much information. Each of those headings correlates to multiple sensory bullet points. I won’t bore you with all of the gory details, but here are a few of my favorite sensory processing guidelines our brains are preprogrammed to use.

Firstly, we are drawn to details that confirm our own existing beliefs. Secondly, we notice flaw as in others more easily than we notice flaws in ourselves. We imagine things and people we’re familiar with or fond of as better. And, the one I found either most perplexing or most terrifying, we edit and reinforce memories after the fact. I am sitting here, thinking I was giving you an easy breezy column today. Instead, I’m having trouble catching my breath.

We are being manipulated. Teachers manipulate us into better citizens, if we are fortunate. Parents, hopefully, manipulate us into loving beings who find productive roles in the world. Companies manipulate us into buying products based on sometimes questionable research and subliminal advertising. The news manipulates us into seeing what isn’t really there, based on both their ratings and their roles within the great machine of American politics. And, most importantly, we didn’t stand a chance. Our own minds manipulate past, present, and future, selectively editing our very thoughts in order to achieve mental balance and clarity, which may not be as clear as we anticipated. All this to say, what do you see, friends? As for me, I intend to clean my lenses up a bit. My windshield wiper fluid dried up along the way, I fear. Take the time to pause, to ponder, to study. Maybe there’s no way to escape selective attention and confirmation bias. But, maybe I can play an active role in where my brain attaches importance. Then again, I have a faulty folder popper opener.