Bias Memes and what I think its doing to our Brains: Part 1 of ?
Where I see post truth being defined in our everyday lives, hacking the human brain
Everybody loves a good meme. We simply can’t get enough.
But what I can’t stand is the clever emergence of tactics in storytelling that encourage extremism and bias thought. Its a trick that has roots in Facism and populism. Its how marketers, bad actors, and conspiracy theorists hack your brain.
These tools are defined by living in between innuendo and fact. When done well it is so subtle that your brain has a hard time telling the difference. Just enough half truths for someone to support and encourage development of a innocuous opinion into fact. Pair that with a strong need to identify and feel part of a group and you get a message that can manipulate and motivate a person to believe so many things. Using these tools and tactics one could easily sneak bias where you are least likely to challenge it — your self identity. Even harder still if your identity is tied to an image you don’t control; one where you need an authority to validate your identity.
I want to cover these issues by writing a small series on these psychological tools that I’m seeing being used on my social media.
Call it what you want.
Whataboutism.
Tu Quoque.
Specious reasoning.
Examples of which:
- Jet fuel can’t melt steel beam.
- What were the holocaust doors made out of?
- Where was Obama during 9/11?
- Lies or conspiracy? What about where we see and recognize authority?
I think we all use a variety of these techniques in our day to day life to make sense of the world. Coping with hard to understand concepts, or simply trying to explain the cruelty and randomness of the world. After all, our brains were designed to see patterns and draw conclusions. I would imagine we get a huge dopamine rush when we can connect the dots no matter the pattern.
We might even bend our logic to ensure that feel good feelings are earned at least in our own minds.
More often than not, no matter the bias. The memes I see in everyday life on facebook, reddit or other sites seem like no win scenarios for the accused. After all no one likes to enter an argument you can’t win. That would make you feel bad. Bad equals stupid. Stupid means wrong. Wrong me no likey. And we have to keep that barrier low for anyone wanting to take advantage or that validation pipeline.
I do not think many people, if anyone, is drawing a comparison like the one insinuated by the meme above. But it is close enough to the truth to push people to belief. Its an easily believable story people will share and spread. The people who do such things are effectively dopamine fiends, exploiting the human brain to spread this disease of misinformation or emotional outbursts.
I don’t mean to say that all memes such as this are pure misinformation. But the easiest ones to engage require little reflection and will often pass the baton of thought to you, the next sprinter, allowing you to finish the thought at a conclusion that might have already been insinuated.
This is what post truth is doing to people to spread misinformation. It becomes easier the more disconnected you are with a process or group. The more ignorant you are of a situation or method the more likely you are to fall for this dopamine trap.
Doesn’t it feel good to win? Good to participate and feel part of something greater than yourself? How hard would you fight to protect that feeling?
