Human mind is consistently inconsistent

The mind consist of many different parts. These parts often “believe” different, mutually inconsistent things.

You are not your brain

If you like the metaphor of your mind as a government, then “you”—the part of your brain that experiences the world and feels like you’re in “control”—is better thought of as a press secretary than as the president.

Social Animals

Human success is deeply tied to our ability to navigate the social world. Indeed, in the ongoing debate about why human brains are so big—and relative to body size they’re really large—a major contender for what drove this process is competition in social domains.

Our survival and reproduction are determined in large part by how well we navigate the social world.

Given this, it’s reasonable to expect that our minds are designed to compete fiercely and subtly for the benefits in the social world. The outcomes of these competitions would have had massive effects on reproductive success over the course of human evolution.

Cognitive biases and heuristics

Human cognition is characterized by various biases and heuristics that influence decision-making and information processing. These biases may predispose individuals to ignore or discount certain information, particularly when it conflicts with preexisting beliefs or preferences. Modules designed for ignorance may exploit these cognitive biases to maintain psychological comfort or reduce cognitive dissonance.

Self-fulfilling prophecies

Believing in certain outcomes can lead individuals to act in ways that make those outcomes more likely to occur, thereby validating their initial beliefs. This phenomenon applies not only to social interactions, such as romantic relationships, but also to broader societal dynamics, such as economic crises caused by rumors and panic.