1 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: Why am I going to start today's brain science episode 2 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: by telling you about the beater Mainhoff group, which was 3 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:16,920 Speaker 1: a West German far left terrorist group in the nineteen seventies. 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:22,480 Speaker 1: This political group is fully irrelevant to any modern discussions 5 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: and their political positions are totally irrelevant to neuroscience. So 6 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: what do these domestic terrorists have to do with attention 7 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: and salience and the front of your brain and synchronicity? 8 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:40,520 Speaker 1: And why might you soon hear about the better Minehoff group? 9 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: Again not for political reasons, but for reasons to do 10 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: with your own brain. Welcome to Inner Cosmos with me 11 00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: David Eagleman. I'm a neuroscientist and author at Stanford and 12 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: in these episodes we sail deeply into our three pound 13 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: universe to understand the intersection between how the brain works 14 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: and how we experience life. So let's start in nineteen 15 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 1: seventy when a far left wing militant group called beater 16 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: Mainhoff also known as the Red Army Faction, they took 17 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:27,040 Speaker 1: to the streets in Germany. Now they define themselves as 18 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: communist and anti imperialist, and they launched a string of 19 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:37,440 Speaker 1: robberies and then bombings, and eventually assassinations, and this all 20 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: brought a lot of bloodshed and pain to Germany throughout 21 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: the decade. Okay, now, who cares about the beater Minhoff Gang. Well, 22 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: unless this touched your life in the nineteen seventies, probably nobody. 23 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: So why am I telling you about this gang? Are 24 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: they coming back? No, happily they are long defunct. But 25 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: the joy of today's podcast is that I get to 26 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: make a prediction that you will hear about Bader Mainehoff 27 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: again and it probably won't be too long. And then 28 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: you'll think, Wow, I just heard about that on Eagelman's podcast, 29 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:16,240 Speaker 1: and now I'm hearing about it again. Now, how can 30 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: I make a prediction like that? Well, the important part 31 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:24,399 Speaker 1: of our story began two decades after the beater Minehoff Kang. 32 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: It began with a man named Terry Mullen in nineteen 33 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: ninety four. Now, Terry, like probably most people, had never 34 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,520 Speaker 1: heard of the batter Minehoff Gang, and then he heard 35 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:38,320 Speaker 1: about them. He heard their name, and then he was 36 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 1: surprised to hear the name a second time within twenty 37 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: four hours, and he thought that was just sort of 38 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: weird and amazing that he had just learned that name 39 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: and then he heard it a second time, so he 40 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: informally posted about that on the Saint Paul Pioneer Press 41 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: online discussion board, and others immediately chimed in that they 42 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: had noticed this general pattern before. There had been times 43 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: when they had learned a new concept or name, and 44 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 1: then they began to see it everywhere, and this phenomenon 45 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,519 Speaker 1: of learning something new and then seeing it again shortly after, 46 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:19,240 Speaker 1: or seeing it all over the place. Everyone started chiming 47 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: in on the discussion board that they had noticed this 48 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: kind of thing before. So the original poster named this 49 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: the Beaiter Meinhoff phenomenon, and it quickly blossomed into a meme, 50 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: first on the discussion board, then nationally, then internationally. Now 51 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: you've probably noticed this in your own life. You see 52 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,600 Speaker 1: some item or some new term, and then you see 53 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: it again and again. It's not necessarily something really popular 54 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:51,320 Speaker 1: that everyone's talking about, but seemingly something more obscure. Once 55 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:54,240 Speaker 1: you've heard of something, you start noticing it everywhere, like 56 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: you've just learned a new word when you're totally sure 57 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:01,240 Speaker 1: you've never heard before, and then seemingly out of nowhere, 58 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:03,800 Speaker 1: you hear it several times in a week where maybe 59 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: you learn about some obscure piece of technology and suddenly 60 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: it appears elsewhere on your news feed, or your friend 61 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: mentions it out of the blue. If you chew on 62 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 1: this for a second, you'll definitely be able to come 63 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: up with examples where you learned some new piece of trivia, 64 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: or you became interested in some new type of shoe 65 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: and then suddenly it seems like you encounter that particular 66 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: fact again, or you see that shoe everywhere you go. 67 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:36,360 Speaker 1: That is the beatter Minehoff phenomenon. A friend recently reported 68 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:38,839 Speaker 1: this to me. When his wife got pregnant, he started 69 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: noticing pregnant women everywhere. Suddenly the world was filled with 70 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: women about to give birth. Where were they all before? 71 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 1: And the better Minehoff phenomenon happens to me a lot. 72 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:52,560 Speaker 1: It happens that I'm thinking about getting a new vehicle now, 73 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 1: so I've been paying more attention to car models on 74 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: the road around me, and I've spotted a couple of 75 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,359 Speaker 1: makes and models where I thought, hey, I kind of 76 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: like that I've never noticed that vehicle before, and now 77 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:08,119 Speaker 1: I'm seeing it everywhere. It makes me feel that these 78 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: models that I had never seen before, that they're proliferating, 79 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: they're driving past me in the street, they're parked in 80 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: my neighborhood, they're featured in a movie I'm watching. The 81 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 1: impression is that the universe is echoing what I just learned. Now, 82 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: as you've probably guessed because this is a neuroscience podcast, 83 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: this phenomenon isn't about the universe making things appear more frequently. Instead, 84 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,720 Speaker 1: it's a quirk of your psychology. You are having the 85 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:43,040 Speaker 1: illusion that the frequency has increased to this end. In 86 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: two thousand and five, the Stanford linguist ARNOLDSWICKI gave a 87 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:51,040 Speaker 1: more official name to the beter Mainhoff phenomenon. He coined 88 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:55,720 Speaker 1: this the frequency illusion, and that name captures the idea 89 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: more precisely. Even though this remains more widely known by 90 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:03,159 Speaker 1: its origine meme name. I've also heard this referred to 91 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: by the way as the red car illusion or the 92 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: blue car effect, meaning that when you start paying attention 93 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 1: to red or blue cars you see them everywhere. But 94 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: whatever we call it, it's all about the illusion of 95 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: the frequency of a previously unknown thing increasing, and you 96 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,359 Speaker 1: can see this in many guyses. For example, I've noticed 97 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: a fascinating conflation between online ads and the beta Meinhoff effect. 98 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: It goes like this. A friend is surfing around and 99 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: spends a moment admiring a new band or a new 100 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: kitchen item, and then she's surfing around the next day 101 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,840 Speaker 1: and sees more of these ads for the same thing. 102 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: So she blames cookies and invasive adwere and yes, of 103 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: course this is part of why she's seeing that thing more. 104 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: But this model of big brother can quickly get stretched 105 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: beyond sensibility when the new item is next noticed on 106 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:05,359 Speaker 1: a billboard or overheard in a conversation. People will sometimes 107 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 1: make crazy arguments that there's a more devious ad network 108 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: at play here, But this is simply the Beater Minehoff 109 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:17,240 Speaker 1: phenomenon in action. Now, just before we move into understanding 110 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 1: why this happens, I'll tell you a quick academic joke. 111 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:23,960 Speaker 1: A student says to her friend, have you ever heard 112 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: of the beatter Minehoff phenomenon? And the other replies, that's 113 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:31,680 Speaker 1: so strange. I just read about that yesterday. Okay, So 114 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: we have a sense of what the phenomenon is, and 115 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: the question we're going to ask today is why does 116 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: it occur? Because what we notice and when tells a 117 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: deeper story about how we engage with the world around us. 118 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: So with the beta Minehoff phenomenon, we're always tempted to say, no, 119 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:54,760 Speaker 1: I'm definitely sure that I've never seen that before. It's 120 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:58,600 Speaker 1: not that I'm having some perceptual illusion. It's that I 121 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 1: really never heard that term in my life before yesterday, 122 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 1: and now I've heard it twice. But that's generally not 123 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: the case. It's simply that we don't notice those things 124 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,560 Speaker 1: that are not relevant to us. The beta Mindhoff phenomenon 125 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: is not some trick of the universe. Instead, it is 126 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: the love child of two psychological processes running under the hood. 127 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:27,320 Speaker 1: The first issue is selective attention. Now, people sometimes think 128 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:30,600 Speaker 1: that selective attention just means you're not listening to your 129 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:34,240 Speaker 1: spouse or kids, but in fact, selective attention is our 130 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: brain's way of managing the enormous amount of information that 131 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:43,640 Speaker 1: it encounters. Remember that your brain lives in silence and darkness, 132 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: and it's trying to make a model of the whole 133 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: world out there. But the whole world is way too 134 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: complex and it's overflowing with detail, almost all of which 135 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: is meaningless to you. So your brain is selective about 136 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:00,640 Speaker 1: what it looks for and what it takes in. So 137 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: think about the last time you walked through a crowded marketplace. 138 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:09,960 Speaker 1: The sites, the sounds, the smell. It's more details than 139 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,240 Speaker 1: you could ever encode or whatever want to encode. So 140 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: your attention acts like a filter. Now, let's get straight 141 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: what we mean by a filter. Sometimes you might think 142 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:24,360 Speaker 1: that what this means is that you're taking everything in 143 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,079 Speaker 1: and then you're throwing out the stuff you don't want. 144 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: But filtering is generally harsher than that. You don't even 145 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 1: take stuff in unless it matches a shape for you. 146 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:38,400 Speaker 1: So think about those children's toys where you have a 147 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: box and you put in a square object into the 148 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,720 Speaker 1: square hole, or a triangular object into the triangle hole, 149 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: or a circular object. Those are filters. And if I 150 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: hand you a hexagon, it doesn't even go in. It's 151 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,560 Speaker 1: not that the box considers hexagons and then spits it 152 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:58,920 Speaker 1: back out, it's that it doesn't even make it into 153 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:01,719 Speaker 1: the box. Now, from the brain's point of view, how 154 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: does it know what things to filter in and out? Well, 155 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 1: you pay attention to certain things because you have networks 156 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:13,439 Speaker 1: housed primarily in the prefrontal cortex for deciding what information 157 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:18,600 Speaker 1: is relevant or salient, and this is constantly updating from 158 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: your experience. In other words, your brain is always asking, hey, 159 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:25,920 Speaker 1: what is the important stuff that I need to pay 160 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:30,240 Speaker 1: attention to? What stuff matters here? So when you encounter 161 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:34,440 Speaker 1: new information, like hearing that cool new band or seeing 162 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:39,360 Speaker 1: the cool new shoes, this network updates and subsequently your 163 00:10:39,400 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: brain can take in this information. Now, let's flip this 164 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,920 Speaker 1: notion of selective attention and look at what can happen 165 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:07,120 Speaker 1: if you're simply not paying attention to something. This is 166 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: called inattentional blindness, and it says though you never even 167 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: see the thing at all. So I'll give you an example. 168 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: I did an episode some weeks ago about why magic 169 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,400 Speaker 1: tricks work, and a lot pivots on exactly this issue 170 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:27,959 Speaker 1: of inattentional blindness. Something can happen right in front of you, 171 00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:30,959 Speaker 1: but if you're not watching for it. In other words, 172 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:35,600 Speaker 1: your attention is elsewhere. The photons hit your eyes, but 173 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:39,680 Speaker 1: you don't see it. The magician moves his hand in 174 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:42,680 Speaker 1: an arc, or pretends he's throwing something in the air, 175 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:45,640 Speaker 1: or there's a snap of the fingers right over here, 176 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: and suddenly the card slip happens. Right there, but it 177 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:55,439 Speaker 1: says though it didn't happen, why because your attention has 178 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: been pulled elsewhere. Now, as an example of this that 179 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:04,800 Speaker 1: I'm guessing most people have seen, consider the Invisible Gorilla video. 180 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,319 Speaker 1: If you haven't seen this, search for it on YouTube. 181 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:12,080 Speaker 1: But pause this podcast here because what's coming next is 182 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,840 Speaker 1: a spoiler. The way this works is you see several 183 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:18,720 Speaker 1: people and half are wearing one shirt color and the 184 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: other half is wearing a different color. And each team 185 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: passes a basketball, but only two other members of their team, 186 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: but they're all intermixed, so they're passing and moving between 187 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 1: one another, and your job is to count the number 188 00:12:33,559 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: of times the ball is passed by one of the teams. 189 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:41,439 Speaker 1: So you count, Okay, there's one pass, Then that person 190 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 1: throws to another person on their team. Okay, that's two. 191 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,400 Speaker 1: Then that person throws to another team member. Okay, that's three. 192 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:52,040 Speaker 1: Like that, but it's challenging because to keep an accurate account, 193 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: you have to ignore what the other team is doing. 194 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 1: So you get to the end of the video and 195 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 1: you say, great, I got it. This team made twelve passes, 196 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:04,160 Speaker 1: and you're told the answer, And let's say the answer 197 00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:06,760 Speaker 1: is twelve you got it right. But then you're asked, 198 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,520 Speaker 1: but did you notice the gorilla? And then the video 199 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:14,439 Speaker 1: is shown again, the exact same video, and now you're 200 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,000 Speaker 1: not counting passes. You're just looking at the big picture. 201 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:20,640 Speaker 1: You're watching the video with a different context. And now 202 00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:22,800 Speaker 1: you see something that blows your mind, which is that 203 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:26,960 Speaker 1: a guy in a gorilla suit walks right into the 204 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:30,800 Speaker 1: middle of the basketball players and he turns and faces 205 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:34,560 Speaker 1: the camera and thumps his chest, and then he struts 206 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:37,880 Speaker 1: out stage left, and all the while the basketball players 207 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:41,079 Speaker 1: are just continuing to pass the balls between them. Now, 208 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:44,719 Speaker 1: almost everybody doesn't notice the gorilla the first time they 209 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: watched the video. Why It's because their attention is so 210 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:53,439 Speaker 1: focused on counting the passes. So given that our visual 211 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,360 Speaker 1: attention is limited, we miss the things that were not 212 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,600 Speaker 1: specifically focused on. And this is why it's known as 213 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:06,200 Speaker 1: inattentional blindness. Now, this can all be seen as a downside, 214 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: but it's actually just what a brain needs to do 215 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:13,400 Speaker 1: to navigate its complex environment. It focuses on certain signals 216 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:17,640 Speaker 1: while ignoring others. For example, think about when you're at 217 00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 1: a noisy cafe. You have to selectively focus on your 218 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 1: companion's voice and not hear all the irrelevant conversations around you, 219 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 1: even though all of this hits your ear drums like. 220 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:44,680 Speaker 2: This, But what you attend to is this, Hi, can 221 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:45,480 Speaker 2: I get you something? 222 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: So it's obviously very useful to be able to selectively 223 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:55,760 Speaker 1: attend because the world is a cacophonous flood, and selective 224 00:14:55,800 --> 00:15:00,360 Speaker 1: attention allows us to zoom in on the signals of interest. 225 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:03,080 Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take a one second tangent to give 226 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:05,560 Speaker 1: you a sense of something here. Some of you know 227 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:07,760 Speaker 1: that I spun a company out of my lab called 228 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: Neo Sensory, And in this company, we make a wristband 229 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,440 Speaker 1: for people who are deaf, and the wristband has a 230 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:16,200 Speaker 1: microphone that picks up on the sounds around you, and 231 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:19,440 Speaker 1: then it turns those sounds into patterns vibration on the skin. 232 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: So it's doing what your inner ear, your cochlea is doing. 233 00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 1: We're just transferring that job to the skin. Now, here's 234 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: what I wanted to touch on. Typically, when someone puts 235 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,600 Speaker 1: this on for the first time, they say, WHOA, I'm 236 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: feeling so much buzzing going on around here, and it 237 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: takes them a little while to understand that all this 238 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:44,040 Speaker 1: buzzing is part of this soundscape around them. In other words, 239 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 1: the next time you're at the cafe, pay attention not 240 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,240 Speaker 1: just to your companion's conversation, but really listen to all 241 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 1: the sounds that are hitting your ears. The overhead music 242 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,280 Speaker 1: and the barista and the coffee machines, and the doors 243 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: opening and closing, and the squeaking and every single one 244 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: of the conversations going on around you. All of that 245 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:09,040 Speaker 1: is hitting your ear drums. We're so good at ignoring 246 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:10,960 Speaker 1: all of that that we only take in what is 247 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,440 Speaker 1: salient to us. And it's only when you push that 248 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: information in through a new channel, like through your wrist, 249 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:20,320 Speaker 1: that you realize how much noise is actually out there. 250 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,680 Speaker 1: Your brain has to learn how to pay selective attention 251 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:29,080 Speaker 1: to the vibrations on your wrist. Okay, so that's selective attention. 252 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: How does this kind of thing get studied in the 253 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: neuroscience laboratory. Well, think of something like a card game 254 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,080 Speaker 1: like the one called Set or something called the Wisconsin 255 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 1: Card Sorting Task. And in games like this, each card 256 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: has some number of shapes of a certain color. So 257 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 1: this card might have three blue diamonds and this one 258 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: has four red squares, and that one has two green circles. 259 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: And let's say you're trying to match a certain property 260 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:02,440 Speaker 1: between cards, like the blue color and the shapes and 261 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:05,160 Speaker 1: the number of shapes. That doesn't matter. So because you're 262 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:09,159 Speaker 1: holding this rule in mind match the color, the neural 263 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: networks in your visual cortex are mostly responding just to 264 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,600 Speaker 1: the color you stare at the cards, but really it's 265 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 1: only your neurons involved in color that are shouting off. 266 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:24,960 Speaker 1: Now the rule changes and you have to pay attention 267 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: to the number of objects. So you match a card 268 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:31,520 Speaker 1: with three shapes over here to a card with three 269 00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:35,000 Speaker 1: shapes over there. Now, what hits your eyes is exactly 270 00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:37,159 Speaker 1: the same, but the cells in your brain that are 271 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:42,360 Speaker 1: responding are those involved in numeracy and same when you're 272 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:46,160 Speaker 1: concentrating on matching shapes, like you want to match squares 273 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,200 Speaker 1: here with squares there. Your brain now plays a very 274 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:52,919 Speaker 1: different game. Everything hits the eyes, but your brain only 275 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:57,560 Speaker 1: really runs the algorithms involved in shape. So we can 276 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:01,439 Speaker 1: see selective attention directly in the brain. So back to 277 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:05,879 Speaker 1: the beta Miinhoff effect. Our brains encode almost nothing around 278 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 1: us unless it somehow becomes relevant to us. Once something 279 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,879 Speaker 1: has been flagged as important or interesting to your brain, 280 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: you will notice it more, creating the illusion that it 281 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 1: is suddenly everywhere, And that leads us to the second 282 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:25,000 Speaker 1: parent of the better Minhoft love child, which is another 283 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:29,919 Speaker 1: psychological process running under the hood. The first was selective attention. 284 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:34,560 Speaker 1: The second is called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is our 285 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:39,199 Speaker 1: tendency to notice everything that confirms what we already believe. 286 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,760 Speaker 1: We notice that we focus on it, we give greater 287 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,919 Speaker 1: credence to it. So generally we talk about confirmation bias 288 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:53,119 Speaker 1: as favoring information that confirms our pre existing beliefs and 289 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,399 Speaker 1: disregarding evidence that contradicts our beliefs. Or we seek out 290 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:02,600 Speaker 1: information that supports our existing views, or we interpret ambiguous 291 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,760 Speaker 1: evidence in a way that supports our existing opinions. But 292 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: in this case of the beta Minhoff phenomenon, there's a 293 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: simpler aspect of this going on. We are simply more 294 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,480 Speaker 1: likely to take the second appearance of the new word 295 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,199 Speaker 1: or car or shoe as something meaningful. Our brains are 296 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:22,720 Speaker 1: now on the lookout for it, and every time we 297 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,280 Speaker 1: see it or hear that word or song or fact again, 298 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:32,600 Speaker 1: that strengthens our belief our conviction that the event is 299 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,840 Speaker 1: happening with increased frequency, and lots of research shows that 300 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:41,920 Speaker 1: we remember information that supports our beliefs more readily than 301 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,879 Speaker 1: information that contradicts them. So once a new piece of 302 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 1: information is introduced to our minds, like the name of 303 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: a band or a new gadget, confirmation bias makes us 304 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:57,520 Speaker 1: believe that the thing is now suddenly ubiquitous. Every time 305 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:02,520 Speaker 1: we see it, we further sum meant this belief into place. 306 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 1: So researchers typically talk about the beta Minhoff phenomenon in 307 00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:11,199 Speaker 1: terms of selective attention and confirmation bias. But because I 308 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,359 Speaker 1: talk about internal models all the time, I want to 309 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 1: cast what we're talking about today in terms of that. 310 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,879 Speaker 1: So as a reminder, your brain works to make a 311 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,200 Speaker 1: model of what is going on in the world out there. 312 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,720 Speaker 1: That's the internal model. Now, the part I want to 313 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: emphasize is just how that actually limits your perception of 314 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 1: the world. So let me give you an example. Imagine 315 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,560 Speaker 1: that you're on a hike with friends, and as you're 316 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:40,600 Speaker 1: tramping up the trails, one of your friends is a 317 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:46,199 Speaker 1: mycologist who studies mushrooms, and he notices the colors and 318 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:50,800 Speaker 1: unusually broad variety of the mushrooms around you. Now these 319 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,199 Speaker 1: fung guy at the base of trees, these have been 320 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:58,119 Speaker 1: hitting everyone's retinas, but this detail was invisible to the 321 00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:00,679 Speaker 1: rest of you. Let's say one of your other friends 322 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,360 Speaker 1: as a pediatrist, and she notices something about the subtle 323 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,440 Speaker 1: turn of your feet as you hike, but no one 324 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,240 Speaker 1: else saw that. And your other friend is a climate scientist, 325 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 1: and he notices the erosion around the tree line, and 326 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,240 Speaker 1: that's invisible to all the rest of you, even though 327 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: all your eyes are pointing in that direction. The point 328 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,879 Speaker 1: is the same, data is laid out before all of you, 329 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,600 Speaker 1: but each of you knows how to look differently. Your 330 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,600 Speaker 1: internal model is built from the raw materials of your 331 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:37,479 Speaker 1: experience with the world, and each of us vacuums up 332 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,919 Speaker 1: the data from our peculiar thin trajectory in the world, 333 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 1: which builds up our models and therefore our interpretations and 334 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:51,480 Speaker 1: our biases based on our experiences. And that's why when 335 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:56,240 Speaker 1: you're hiking, everyone is seeing a different world. So that's 336 00:21:56,320 --> 00:22:00,919 Speaker 1: why we notice things more once they have some relevance 337 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:05,480 Speaker 1: to us, because the borders of your internal model have stretched, 338 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:09,880 Speaker 1: so now your brain catches words or cars or shoes 339 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:14,840 Speaker 1: that were previously just noise. These items had no filter 340 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,600 Speaker 1: shaped like them, and therefore they're mentioned was as good 341 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,760 Speaker 1: as invisible. Now that the model is stretched, you catch 342 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: that new thing all over the place. So let's summarize 343 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,399 Speaker 1: where we are so far. Although we might swear that 344 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:34,560 Speaker 1: we've never heard a term mentioned before, the shoddiness of 345 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:39,199 Speaker 1: human memories suggests that's generally not true. Instead, what the 346 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:44,240 Speaker 1: beter Minhof phenomenon illustrates is how deeply we filter the world. 347 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:48,520 Speaker 1: We don't notice those things that we have no interpretation for. 348 00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:53,000 Speaker 1: So think of walking in a foreign country and hearing 349 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: people's speech simply as background noise, something you can't interpret. 350 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: If you then learn like the word for good or 351 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: for sorry or for thanks, then that constantly jumps out 352 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:09,600 Speaker 1: of the conversation to your ears. Why because you can 353 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,520 Speaker 1: now interpret it. It's not that people are saying it 354 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: more often, It's that you finally figured out how to 355 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:20,679 Speaker 1: listen for it. As you better model the world, the 356 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,639 Speaker 1: more you catch. So even though you may think you 357 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:28,520 Speaker 1: never heard of this nineteen seventies German domestic terrorist group before, 358 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: you presumably have, but you were busy with the other 359 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,920 Speaker 1: things of salience in your life, and it just didn't register. 360 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:42,440 Speaker 1: You were counting basketball passes and missed this gorilla. If 361 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,919 Speaker 1: you don't have a model for things, you just don't 362 00:23:46,160 --> 00:24:06,360 Speaker 1: catch them. Now, the fascinating thing about the beter Miinhoff 363 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:08,680 Speaker 1: phenomenon is that it shows up in lots of ways. 364 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:13,000 Speaker 1: Once your attention is drawn to something, some words, some car, 365 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 1: or some shoes, it seems to you to be everywhere. 366 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 1: And the linguist that I mentioned before, Arnold's Wicki points 367 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: out that there are several special cases of this. For example, 368 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: one is called the outgroup illusion, and this is where 369 00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:31,000 Speaker 1: there's some characteristic of a group who you don't like, 370 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:36,040 Speaker 1: and you start seeing that characteristic more often. So, for example, 371 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:40,160 Speaker 1: imagine that there are two groups who live on opposite 372 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:44,639 Speaker 1: sides of the track, the Augustinians and the Justinians. So 373 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,920 Speaker 1: let's say you're an Augustinian and you think the Justinians 374 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 1: are very selfish. So then anytime some Justinian happens to 375 00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:58,800 Speaker 1: act selfishly, you're noticing that, just like you would notice 376 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 1: the new word or the shoe chooser the car. Your 377 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:06,240 Speaker 1: confirmation bias says, yes, I knew that was true about 378 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,919 Speaker 1: those guys, but presumably you don't notice as diligently the 379 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 1: equivalent behaviors in your own group. And on the other 380 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:18,520 Speaker 1: side of the tracks, the Justinians look at the Augustinians 381 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:22,879 Speaker 1: and think they are very immoral. So whenever an Augustinian 382 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:27,720 Speaker 1: behaves poorly, a version of the better Meinhoff phenomenon takes 383 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:31,480 Speaker 1: place here, and it seems like this is a characteristic 384 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,080 Speaker 1: that is seen a whole lot in those Augustinians. And 385 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,640 Speaker 1: of course the Justinians will tend to notice less when 386 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:42,920 Speaker 1: immoral behavior happens in their own group, because their internal 387 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:47,960 Speaker 1: models suggest, like everybody's internal models, that their in group 388 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:53,040 Speaker 1: generally behaves well, behaves within certain moral boundaries, but that 389 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,520 Speaker 1: outgroup they are capable of anything. Now, relatedly, there was 390 00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:59,640 Speaker 1: a paper a couple of years ago out of Duke 391 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,520 Speaker 1: Universe where they showed that if there's some group that 392 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:08,240 Speaker 1: you feel is threatening to you, they seem more populous, 393 00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:11,800 Speaker 1: as in, there seem to be more of them, presumably 394 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:15,960 Speaker 1: because your internal model is noticing them more. Look, there's 395 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: one on the sidewalk, there's one in the clothing store, 396 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,960 Speaker 1: there's one in that restaurant. So just like the beta 397 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:26,960 Speaker 1: Minhof phenomenon. Your estimates are off based on the details 398 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,160 Speaker 1: of your internal model. Why does this happen Because you're 399 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:33,280 Speaker 1: not noticing the groups that you are not threatened by. 400 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:36,879 Speaker 1: You're noticing those individuals who belong to the group that 401 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,240 Speaker 1: you attend to. Now, by the way, this doesn't always 402 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,400 Speaker 1: need to be groups that you're threatened by or you dislike. 403 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:47,360 Speaker 1: This can generally happen with anything you notice about groups 404 00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:49,880 Speaker 1: that are not your own. As one example is which 405 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 1: He also points out that some people who speak English 406 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:58,480 Speaker 1: in one country notice things about English speakers in another country. 407 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:02,800 Speaker 1: One example is the double use of the word is. 408 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,120 Speaker 1: For example, someone says the thing is is that blah 409 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:12,159 Speaker 1: blah blah. So speakers of different English dialects like Australian 410 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: or Irish or British or American will say that they 411 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:20,399 Speaker 1: notice that other speakers use the double is, but that 412 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,920 Speaker 1: their own country does not do this. But it turns 413 00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,000 Speaker 1: out that's generally not true. It's simply that you can 414 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,200 Speaker 1: notice things more easily that you take to be features 415 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,679 Speaker 1: of this other group that you think are unusual or 416 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: exotic features, and you notice them all the time, while 417 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,160 Speaker 1: in fact it is just as common in your own 418 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,600 Speaker 1: group and all this is consistent with the fact that 419 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:46,400 Speaker 1: we as humans are pattern imposers. We try to capture 420 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:50,520 Speaker 1: the world, not by writing down every megabyte of data 421 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:55,119 Speaker 1: like a computer would, but instead by summarizing situations into 422 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: patterns that we can recognize. And one of the ways 423 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,800 Speaker 1: we can see this is in how brains will impose 424 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:07,760 Speaker 1: patterns onto random noise. I talked about this in previous episodes, 425 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 1: for example, about faces. It's so trivially easy for us 426 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,959 Speaker 1: to see faces all around us because faces carry enormous 427 00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:21,160 Speaker 1: social information and we are highly pre programmed to spot faces. 428 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,520 Speaker 1: And that's why you see a face in the electrical 429 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 1: outlet in your wall, or in the burn marks of 430 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 1: a piece of toast, or on the face of the moon. 431 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,600 Speaker 1: Anything that even vaguely resembles two eyes and the line 432 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: down and a line across will generally trigger your attention, 433 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,720 Speaker 1: because your brain thinks there is a face out there, 434 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 1: and for reasons of threat or opportunity, it really cares 435 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 1: about that. Now, in the visual domain, we call this paradolia, 436 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,840 Speaker 1: but this is a subset of a more general phenomenon 437 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:57,440 Speaker 1: called apophenia, which just refers to imposing patterns on noisy data. 438 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:03,360 Speaker 1: For example, participant in the lab will impose voices onto 439 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: random noise, and in other studies, investors tend to see 440 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: trends and patterns in stock prices that are essentially random, 441 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:17,200 Speaker 1: and that leads to over confidence in predicting future stock movements. 442 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: And this is exactly what happens to us all the 443 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 1: time we erroneously detect patterns. One particularly egregious example of 444 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: this is when people claim that they have good or 445 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:35,200 Speaker 1: bad red light karma or parking karma. Now, I don't 446 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,640 Speaker 1: need to tell you that there is no such thing. 447 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 1: The electronics underlying the city traffic department does not keep 448 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: a light green or red for you, nor, as far 449 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,040 Speaker 1: as we can tell, are those electronics influenced by any 450 00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:52,480 Speaker 1: sort of deity to help you at the expense of 451 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,520 Speaker 1: others to make a green light. No matter how much 452 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,720 Speaker 1: your deity likes you, he presumably doesn't manipulate the electronics 453 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:04,040 Speaker 1: lying your local city traffic department, and certainly none of 454 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: the engineers who work there have ever noticed an anomaly. 455 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: And it's the same with your parking. Your deity, although 456 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,400 Speaker 1: a fan of yours does not force a close parker 457 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: to leave them all because he sees that you're coming. Nonetheless, 458 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,640 Speaker 1: we impose patterns, and if you have three lucky lights 459 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:27,840 Speaker 1: in a row or three lucky parking spots, then you 460 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: start to feel like there's something larger than you happening here. Okay, 461 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:37,120 Speaker 1: so we've been talking about the beta Mainhoff phenomenon and 462 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,479 Speaker 1: the details of our psychology, like selective attention or confirmation bias. 463 00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,240 Speaker 1: So now let's zoom out to the big picture of 464 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: how the quirks of our psychology craft, in part, how 465 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,239 Speaker 1: we navigate our lives. And we can get into this 466 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:57,720 Speaker 1: by asking how does a simple psychological phenomenon touch on 467 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 1: profound philosophical ideas an artistic expression? And this matters because 468 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:07,000 Speaker 1: the beta Meinhoff phenomenon isn't just about noticing something frequently 469 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: after first encountering it. It's about how those repeated encounters 470 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:17,560 Speaker 1: feel surprising, almost like they are signaling something significant. So 471 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: some decades ago, the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung proposed this 472 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:28,480 Speaker 1: concept of synchronicity. When events seem meaningfully related, like you 473 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: are thinking about an old friend that you haven't spoken 474 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,680 Speaker 1: to in a long time, and just as you're reminiscing 475 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: about him. Your phone rings and it's that friend calling 476 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 1: you out of the blue. This unexpected coincidence where the 477 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,320 Speaker 1: inner thought and external event line up in a meaningful way. 478 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 1: This is what young meant by synchronicity. And lots of 479 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:52,320 Speaker 1: people see these coinciding events or random encounters and they say, look, 480 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:56,160 Speaker 1: there must be a deeper cosmic pattern here. There's something 481 00:31:56,200 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 1: I'm meant to notice now. This is a poetic thought, 482 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:04,920 Speaker 1: and the notions of serendipity and coincidence often show up 483 00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:09,640 Speaker 1: in books and poetry. For example, in Ruki Morocomi's novels, 484 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:14,840 Speaker 1: the characters often experience strange synchronicities that guide their actions. 485 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,120 Speaker 1: These patterns are essential threads and the tapestry of life 486 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:23,240 Speaker 1: that pull us towards our destinies, and poets like Charles 487 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: Bodelaire or ts Eliot they explore these themes of fate 488 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:30,760 Speaker 1: and coincidence and the search for signs and the chaos 489 00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:34,760 Speaker 1: of urban life. But while this universe we live in 490 00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,160 Speaker 1: is certainly much bigger than us and still full of mysteries, 491 00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:40,640 Speaker 1: this is a good example of the way that our 492 00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: own psychological peculiarities might lead us to bark up the 493 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:50,280 Speaker 1: wrong trees. What simple psychological phenomenon like the better Meinhoff 494 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 1: effect expose for us is the way that idiosyncrasies of 495 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:58,240 Speaker 1: our minds determine the way we interpret the world, both 496 00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:00,880 Speaker 1: on a daily basis and in our life literature. What 497 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: we see in the beta Minhoft phenomenon, which is a 498 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:08,720 Speaker 1: result of selective attention and confirmation bias, often convinces us 499 00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 1: of synchronicity in the universe when we're just seeing the 500 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:17,480 Speaker 1: exhaust of our own engines. So our literature gets shaped 501 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: by the details of our psychology. If you can imagine 502 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:25,040 Speaker 1: an alien civilization that maybe has their own quirks, but 503 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,360 Speaker 1: doesn't have inattentional blindness and cognitive biases like our own, 504 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: they might have a very different literature. If we're a commune, 505 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,760 Speaker 1: Baudelaire and Elliott got on a spaceship and went on 506 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 1: a book toward to this other planet, they might find 507 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,840 Speaker 1: that their works aren't so popular because without the particular 508 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,920 Speaker 1: attentional quirks that we have, the aliens would not find 509 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:53,960 Speaker 1: stories about synchronicities so compelling. Like many things in science, 510 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: understanding the details of our minds gives us a way 511 00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:01,320 Speaker 1: to pull the camera back just slightly wider than our 512 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:04,680 Speaker 1: parochial view of the world, so that we can see 513 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:09,120 Speaker 1: the ways that we so often seek and impose meaning 514 00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,160 Speaker 1: even when there is none. For the record, I'm not 515 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:14,520 Speaker 1: saying life is not full of meaning it is. I'm 516 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,480 Speaker 1: only pointing to those places where we can reliably demonstrate 517 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:23,880 Speaker 1: that patterns are being erroneously imposed. So what we talked 518 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: about today was this weird feeling of learning something new 519 00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,960 Speaker 1: and then suddenly noticing it everywhere. In the case of 520 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 1: the beta Minhoff phenomenon, it is a bias where our 521 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: attention and then our subsequent recognition are heightened, which leads 522 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,799 Speaker 1: us to believe that these newly discovered items are occurring 523 00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 1: more frequently. So does the beta Minehoff effect reveal a 524 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:51,800 Speaker 1: deeper spiritual reality in which everything in the universe is connected? 525 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:56,640 Speaker 1: Or is it merely our minds seeking patterns in the 526 00:34:56,760 --> 00:35:02,200 Speaker 1: randomness of existence, asking these questions and chasing down the answers. 527 00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:07,160 Speaker 1: This improves our understanding of reality and our place within it, 528 00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:11,239 Speaker 1: because we see that it is less about the objects 529 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,160 Speaker 1: or the information themselves and more about the intricate dance 530 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:20,319 Speaker 1: of attention and memory. It's a reminder that your perception 531 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:24,040 Speaker 1: of frequency is not a perfect mirror of reality, but 532 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:28,960 Speaker 1: is shaped by the interplay of new information and existing knowledge. 533 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,839 Speaker 1: The cognitive mechanisms that we come to the table with 534 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:39,120 Speaker 1: color our experience, sometimes with misleading hues. We don't see 535 00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:42,600 Speaker 1: the world exactly as it is out there, but is 536 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:47,000 Speaker 1: filtered through the lens of what we have experienced. As 537 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 1: the writer on ais ninput it, we see things not 538 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:56,239 Speaker 1: as they are, We see them as we are. I 539 00:35:56,239 --> 00:35:59,799 Speaker 1: hope today's exploration will make you more aware of your 540 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,359 Speaker 1: of the world. Try to notice instances of the better 541 00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:08,400 Speaker 1: Minehoff phenomenon in your life. Ask why certain information suddenly 542 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,000 Speaker 1: stands out to you. You won't always be able to 543 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:16,400 Speaker 1: answer this, but sometimes something interesting will surface, turning a 544 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:26,320 Speaker 1: bit of your unconscious experience more conscious. Go to Eagleman 545 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:30,480 Speaker 1: dot com slash podcast for more information and find further reading. 546 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 1: Send me an email at podcasts at eagleman dot com 547 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: with any questions or discussions, and if this is your 548 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: first time hearing about the better Minehoff effect, I'm quite 549 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:41,880 Speaker 1: sure you'll hear about it again soon. Pop me a 550 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:44,719 Speaker 1: note when you do, and check out and subscribe to 551 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,759 Speaker 1: Inner Cosmos on YouTube for videos of each episode and 552 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,640 Speaker 1: to leave comments until next time. I'm David Eagleman, and 553 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:58,360 Speaker 1: thank you for joining me here in the inner Cosmos. 554 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,200 Speaker 1: I hope you to part