good and evil, 29–30
Google, 206–207
gorilla, invisible, 64–65, 69
Gould, Stephen J., 89, 94
Graham, Billy, 89–90
gravity, 60
Greece, ancient, 101, 103
green mamba (snake), 179
Greg, conversations about the manuscript, 17–18, 21, 23, 99, 115–16, 127, 129–30, 143–44, 150, 213
groups sharing beliefs, 24, 25–26, 39, 207, 208
distrust of other groups, 176
as source of rules and expected social behavior, 26
triggering effects spreading through groups, 187
Guatemala, lost Mayan city in, 62–63
“gut feelings.” See intuition
habit
and behavior, 174, 208
habit of the mind/brain, 18, 26, 46, 50
hairbrush, multiple uses of, 23–24
hallucinations, 84–85, 92
Harlow, Harry, 156
hasty generalizations, 37
“haunted house,” 161–62
hearing things, 84–85
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 101, 102
Heidegger, Martin, 101
Heraclitus, 101
here and now, 209–10
hierarchies of vervets, 13
Hinduism, 46, 193
history and beliefs, 41–56
history of the scientific method of thinking, 90–93
revisions and interpretations, 41–42
timetable for, 210
History channel, 61
Homer, 67
Homo erectus, 131
Homo sapiens, 140–41, 141–42, 147, 165. See also early man
Howard, conversations about the manuscript, 35–36, 39, 213
How We Know What Isn’t So (Gilovich), 36
Hume, David, 101
hypotheses, 21, 91, 92
activation hypothesis, 124, 125
extended mind/brain hypothesis, 107, 160, 180
Iceland, belief in evolution, 52
idiosyncratic models, 177
illusions
beliefs and divides in awareness as, 124–25
illusion of attention, 64–65
perceptions as, 117–18
illusory correlation, 70, 80, 93, 151
imaginings, 43, 143, 144–47, 150, 151, 163, 192, 209, 210, 213
and awareness, 105, 120–21
creative imaginings, 149
and experience, 145, 147
and models, 177, 178
and stories, 169
and symbols, 46
that become beliefs, 148–49, 192, 199–201
imitation, 138, 156
immoral brain, 37
Implausible Beliefs: In the Bible, Astrology, and UFOs (Mazur), 24
inaccuracy and stories, 170
incomplete or conflicting evidence, 66, 112, 208
indeterminate divides, 67, 96, 149, 152
indirect evidence, 62, 65–66, 67, 68, 74, 113, 155–56, 163, 213
and misinterpretation, 138
science and religion both using, 97
and triggering, 185
indoctrination, 69, 72, 181, 204, 210
cultural indoctrination, 197
by others, 192–96
self-indoctrination, 192, 196–97
inference, 59, 68–70, 141, 213
causal inference, 163
information
capacity to categorize, 141
data distortion, 70, 93, 148
external information, 15, 48, 107, 108, 112, 119, 124, 126–27, 160
information overload, 112–13, 205–207, 209, 210
information-processing operations, 126–27, 145
and ambiguity and uncertainty, 151
and brain reading, 160–61
initiating unperceived systems and operations, 126
and mirroring, 160
networks of information in brain, 213
and storytelling, 171
internal information, 126, 179
revising models in response to new information, 122
innate models, 174–76, 178
innate releasing mechanisms and triggering, 180–81
instant beliefs, 38
intelligence, growth of in early man, 142
intelligent design, 194
internal attributions, 163
internal information, 126, 179
internal stimuli, 185, 186, 213
Internet. See media and technology
interpretations, 37, 92, 94, 118, 147, 151, 171, 201, 208
of authority, 94, 98
cause-and-effect interpretations, 149, 174
changing interpretations, 41–42, 45, 51, 60
of evidence, 20, 53, 58, 59, 64, 65, 66, 68, 94, 97
in science, 88, 91, 93
evidence-interpretation biases, 93
influence of interpreters on, 66, 69, 116, 131, 146, 206
of information, 14, 109, 206
interpreting experiences, 63, 68
multiple interpretations, 64, 112
interviews as source of evidence, 70–71
intransigent beliefs, 189–202, 203, 204, 210, 212, 213
and belief-disconfirmation failure, 201–202
belief perseverance, 192
“deeply held belief,” 79, 112, 192
introspection and brain reading, 156
intuition, 38, 59, 68–70, 112
counterintuition, 171
intuitive primacy, 69, 70
and stories/models, 169, 174
Invisible Gorilla, The (Chabris and Simons), 64–65
Iowa, and antievolution, 52
Iraq, US invasion of, 32
Irish cultural myths, 43–44
Islam, 46–47, 193–94, 205
jaguars and water, 62–63
James, William, 101
James-Lange theory, 109
Japan
American reaction to Japanese after Pearl Harbor, 197
Tohoku-Oki earthquake, 209–10
Jean Baptiste (fictional character), 72
Jesus, 97
Jihadists, 194
Joan of Arc, Saint, 87–88
Joe (claims adjuster), 57–59
John, Saint (the apostle), 97
John-Bill interaction, 185
John XXII (pope), 54
jokes, 171–72
Jonestown, 193
Joyce, James, 44, 171
Judaism, 69, 193
Jung, Carl, 28
Kahan, Dan, 94
Kahneman, Daniel, 38
Kant, Immanuel, 60, 101, 102–103
karma, belief in, 71–72
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, 48
Kentucky, and antievolution, 52
Kida, Thomas, 37
Kimberley, Australia, 77–79
knowing, 21, 117, 122
procedural/practical knowledge and conceptual knowledge, 176–77
See also cognition
Koran and story affirmation, 194
Kuhn, Thomas, 51, 91
labor, division of, 136
language, 72–74, 132, 134, 137, 139, 154, 170, 206
children able to think before able to speak, 174
development of, 168
verbal exchanges involve other people, 83
See also communication
lasers, discovery of, 67
Lavoisier, Antoine, 93
Lawrence, D. H., 171
learning, 122, 169
associational learning, 134
learned models, 122, 169, 174, 176–78
learned responses to triggering, 181, 182
need to improve and change education, 210, 212
observation learning, 138
See also cognition
legal evidence, 66
levitation as pseudoscience, 53
limbic system, 110–11
Lindbergh, Charles, 28
Livingston, David, 28
lobes of the brai
n, 111
Locke, John, 101
logic, 38, 59
long-term memory, 182, 193
Los Angeles Zoo, 179
lottery, winning the, 29–30
Louisiana, and antievolution, 52
Lourdes, visiting, 31
Lovejoy, Arthur, 101
LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), 146
Luke, Saint (the apostle), 97
MacKay, Charles, 24
magisteria
nonoverlapping, 89, 95, 97
overlapping, 96
male hierarchies of vervet monkeys, 13, 15
Manichaean religion, 103
Many Faces of God cult, 193
Mark, Saint (the apostle), 97
Marlowe, Christopher, 68
Marx, Karl, 30
Massachusetts, and antievolution, 52
mass extinctions, 210
maternal care, lacking, 156–57
Matthew, Saint (the apostle), 97
Maya civilization, 92
search for Mayan city in Guatemala, 62–63
search for Rio Bec B in Mexico, 150–51
Mazur, Allan, 24
McLuhan, Marshall, 207
media and technology, 24, 87
avoiding distasteful triggers, 186
changes in how people communicate with each other, 207
indirect evidence from as source of beliefs, 65–66, 79
individuals accepting only consistent information from, 206
information overload, 205
Melville, Herman, 72, 171
memory, 68, 101, 107, 113, 146, 148, 156, 163, 169, 170
episodic memory, 134, 147–48
faulty memories, 37
long-term memory, 182, 193
memory repetition, 139, 169, 181–82
recall, 42, 106, 107–108
selective remembering, 70
working memory, 147–48, 177
mental illness, 28
mental images, 145
mental sensations, 117–18, 122
Merkel, Angela, 194
method, scientific, 90–93
midbrain, 119, 133
Middle Ages, religious myths during, 46
mind. See brain; Theory of mind/brain
mind-altering drugs, 146
Mind of Its Own, A: How the Brain Distorts and Deceives (Fine), 37
mind reading. See Theory of mind/brain
miracles, 31
mirroring, 126, 144, 153, 154, 159–61, 163, 178
affecting triggering responses, 185
and innate releasing mechanisms, 180–81
“mirroring overload,” 164
and stories, 169, 172
misinterpretation, 20, 36, 38, 105, 138, 156
misperceptions, 36, 37, 64, 65
Mississippi, and antievolution, 52
Missouri, and antievolution, 52
models, 168, 172, 173–78, 212, 213
analogous models, 177
attributes, 169, 172, 178
balance scales, model of, 176
and beliefs, 178
“bottom-up” models, 176–77
brain’s use of, 80
and cause-and-effect models, 175
choice limited to a person’s available models, 126
creating a new model, 184
and divides, 126
and early man, 168–69, 173, 178
idiosyncratic models, 177
and imaginings, 177
and indoctrination by others, 192, 194
innate models, 174–76, 178
and intuition, 169, 174
learned models, 122, 169, 174, 176–78
model-related influences on behavior, 174, 175–76
as representation in the brain, 169
revising models in response to new information, 122
“top-down” models, 177
unperceived representations of, 119
Mongol invasion of Russia, 45
monism, 101–103, 106–13
monkeys, 138, 156, 157–58, 160, 187, 198
vervet monkeys, 11–13, 116, 167, 183, 189–91, 213
morality, consensus-based, 208
multiculturalism, 194
music and the brain, 141, 184, 187
myth-beliefs, 43–51
changing over time
acceptance of Darwin’s theory as example, 51–52
Columbus’s voyages as example, 49–51
difference between myth and belief, 46
pseudoscience represented in, 52–55
narrative nature of life, 59
brain moving toward narrative and storytelling, 61
narrow divides, 20, 26, 37, 85, 148
beliefs supported by evidence, 101–102
brain has inbuilt system to narrow divides, 70, 152
in brain reading, 157
Columbus’s voyages as example of process of narrowing a divide, 49–51
connecting two events and seeing cause and effect, 149
decreasing of ambiguity and uncertainty narrows divides, 201
facilitate belief acceptance and longevity, 56
impact of emotions on, 110
and mirroring, 161
narrowing divides by repeatedly confirming data, 60
narrowness of belief-evidence divide, 55
scientific method aimed at narrowing divides, 97–98
seeing what we believe narrows divides, 84
and stories/models, 172
way to manage information and establish a narrow divide, 113
without considering evidence, 38
See also divides; wide divides
National Geographic channel, 61
National Institutes of Health, 96
Nature (TV show), 61
Nelson, Lord, 44
neuromarketing, 48–49, 181
neuronal activity, 119, 122
mirror neurons, 159–61
neurosciences and belief, 110–11, 115–27
Newman, John Henry (cardinal), 101
New Mexico, and antievolution, 52
newspapers. See media and technology
Newsweek (magazine), 15
Newton, Isaac, 54
New York Times (newspaper), 15
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 209
9/11 attacks, 197
nonhuman primates, 10, 124, 139, 141, 145, 161, 164, 187, 196
brains of, 133, 157, 160
hierarchies, 13, 107
medicinal properties of, 164
See also chimpanzees; monkeys
nonoverlapping magisteria, 89, 95, 97
NOVA (TV show), 61
novel behavior, 134
now, focus of attention on, 209–10
objective reality, 59, 60, 61
objective truth, 59
observation, 37, 132, 172
belief vs. observation, 38
and brain activity, 126, 159, 160, 161, 163, 181
as evidence, 62, 64
and mirroring, 153, 159–60, 161, 163
observation learning, 138
obsessions, 10
octopus, multiple use of suckers, 23–24
Oklahoma, and antievolution, 52
Old Stone Age, 137
Old Testament. See Bible, Old Testament
On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You Are Not (Burton), 117
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 51–52
orbitofrontal cortex, 109
“ordinary life,” 104
out-loving, 29
overlapping magisteria, 96
over-reliance on authority, 37
oversimplification, 37
oxygen, discovery of, 93
oxytocin, 111, 133
packaging information to handle too much information, 113
pain, 64, 139, 160, 161, 172, 174, 175, 185–86
and beliefs, 30, 105
and the brain, 108, 111, 123, 157
Panama Canal, 42
Paracelsus, 54
&n
bsp; “paradigm shift,” 51
parietal lobes, 111
Parmenides, 102
past, reconstructing the, 131–32
patternicity, 37
Pearl Harbor, attack on, 197
Pepper, Stephen, 101
Pepsi-Cola, 48
perceptions, 37, 65–66, 69, 94, 102, 106, 117–18
perseverance, belief, 192. See also intransigent beliefs
persistent belief of being “someone else’s child,” 9–10, 100, 213
personal experience as direct evidence, 62–65, 68
personal injury, repaying those who cause, 175–176
persuasion, 30
PETA, 197–99
philosophy and beliefs, 99–113
phrenology, 53
pig, three-legged, 171–72
pigheaded brain, 37
Plato, 101, 102
pleasure, 19, 44, 133, 135, 139, 140, 142, 176, 195
pleasure and rewards system, 47, 48, 110, 119–20, 121, 122, 126, 175, 202
and repeat behavior, 175
Plotkin, Henry, 104
poisonous snakes, 150–51, 179, 184
Ponzi schemes, 32
Post, Wiley, 28
postmodernism, 59–61, 92
prayers, 31, 88, 95–96, 181
prediction, 20, 21, 33, 61, 68, 74, 109, 139, 148, 149
prefrontal cortex, 109, 110, 133
preplay, 122, 126
Priestley, Joseph, 93
primates. See nonhuman primates
printing press, invention of, 205
problem-solving capabilities, 145
procedural/practical knowledge, 176–77
proofs and the scientific method, 90–91
property rights, 174
Proust, Marcel, 171
Prozac (drug), 15–16
pseudoscience, 52–55, 94
psilocybin (drug), 111
psychologists and beliefs, 35–39
Quine, Willard Van Orman, 101
radio. See media and technology
rational thinking, 38, 39, 70
reality, 30, 31, 80, 123, 195
and dualism, 103–104
and monism, 102
objective reality, 59, 60, 61
physical reality, 34, 60
reason, age of, 203
reasoning, 37, 60, 90, 91, 137
abstract reasoning, 201
belief-related reasoning, 37, 111, 138, 178
nonrational features of, 37, 178
See also cognition; thinking process
recall. See memory
reconstructing the past, 131–32
Reconstructions in Psychoanalysis (McGuire), 42
reincarnation, 53, 199–201
reinterpretation, 41–42, 45, 51, 60
religion, 69, 199, 205
brain programmed for religious experience, 96
and dualism, 102–103
as an exception to science, 87–98
and indoctrination, 181, 193–94, 195
and personal health, 95, 195
religious myths-beliefs, 43, 46–47, 171, 207
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