5 Distorted Things That Happen In Our Head

It may come as a shock to many, that we don’t have one unified “self”. We may choose to think we have a self and talk about ourselves this way, but the evidence points toward the brain being more compartmentalized and consisting of modules, which often compete with each other. This is why, it is often so hard to lose weight, as one part of our brain is desperate to eat well and get thin, but another part of the brain wants the pleasure and calories contained in that tasty piece of chocolate cake.
And pretty much all of us also, engage in some kind of convoluted mental gymnastics and straight out distorted thinking; generally to make ourselves feel better. And, then sometimes, our brain denies the evidence of our apparent success and competence and we may experience….

5 – Impostor Syndrome

Some highly successful and very clever people think that they are frauds. They may believe that it is only a matter of time before others find out that their success is simply down to luck, good timing, or the superficial appearance of competence and intelligence.
Impostor syndrome is an internal, personal experience, usually experienced by high achievers who feel that they may have slipped through and somehow conned their way to success. They may think it is only a matter of time before they are found out. Imagine, you are a student accepted into Harvard University, but you think you don’t deserve to be there. How lonely and alienating! Luckily, it is possible to overcome such false beliefs. Some people however, have the opposite problem….

4 – Dunning-Kruger Effect

Most of us have watched those talent shows on television, which feature contestants who don’t have an ounce of talent, but they have confidence in their ability in spades. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological phenomenon which explains how the unskilled, incompetent and uneducated may have great faith in their ability; in contrast to the above impostor syndrome.
The psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, named this psychological effect after a bank robber called McArthur Wheeler, who thought that the act of covering his face with lemon juice, while he robbed two banks, would hide him from the surveillance cameras.
It was noted that, the unskilled and untalented, will often overestimate their own level of skill; fail to recognize genuine skill in others and fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy. However, with training and education most people are able to recognize their former delusion. Some though continue to think that they see reality as it really is….

3 – Naive Realism

Probably most of us are “naive realists” to some extent. We may think that we see the world, reality, happenings and interactions, as they really are. We often fail to take into consideration that, other people as a result of having different experiences or cultural backgrounds, for example, may interpret the same events and experiences differently.
Also, as children, we are all coming from the perspective of “naive realism,” we naturally assume that the grass is green, but later, we may find out that our eyes don’t necessarily show us how the grass really is, but the result of the interaction between light, the object, and the human eye. But of course, as P.T. Barnum, the showman said, “There is a sucker born every minute.” And that sucker is…

2 – Forer Effect

All of us are likely to believe that, those vague or general descriptions found in personality tests, cold readings and horoscopes apply to us personally. This is called the Forer effect or sometimes the Barnum effect.
The psychologist, Bertram R. Forer, demonstrated this phenomenon back in 1948, when he gave his students a personality test. He said that he would provide each student with a unique personality analysis and that he wanted them to rate this analysis on a scale from 0 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). In reality, each student received exactly the same analysis, which was assembled from various horoscopes. The average rating by the students was 4.26. But how does the brain decide?

1 – Cost And Benefits

Every day, our brain has to make lots of decisions, like what we should cook for dinner. And, to do this, our brain it seems, conducts a kind of cost-benefit analysis and comes to a decision. However, when we get to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for dinner, we are bombarded with distractions like chocolate bars and magazines, which may threaten our budget and our mission.
As we walk along with the trolley, part of our brain sends messages about all the interesting and rewarding things about us. The ability to ignore all these distractions and keep on track and budget, however, depends to a great extent on cognitive control. Studies of brain lesions and damage, tell us that cognitive control has a lot to do with the functioning of an area of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which works together with the anterior cingulate cortex, to keep us on task and control our impulses.