10 Ways Your Brain Plays Tricks On You

Without our brains to integrate and interpret the sensory inputs of the rest of our  body, we would experience an incredibly black, silent, and isolated existence. But even when our sense are fully functional, our brains sometimes don't allow us to be aware of the full truth of the world outside our bodies. Here are 10 examples of the games our brains play on us.

1. Emotional loops.

Imagine it's a beautiful, sunny, warm day and you are at the beach. You put on your Hawaiian shorts and Tony Bahama top with your favorite flip flops and slather on some sunscreen to amble down to the beach. There in the water just a few yards away you see a shark.

You would think you would feel fear and then your heart would start beating fast to make sure you get away from the water. Actually, according to the peripheral theory of emotion, your heart starts beating fast and then you feel afraid. Doctors know this from the effects of beta-blocker drugs used to slow own racing hearts and lower blood pressure. It's the heart that tells your brain to be afraid, rather than the other way around. And if something has limited your heart rate, you won't feel as afraid.

2. Semantic Saturation

We all know what brains are, don't we? If you have half a brain, you know which part of your body is your brain, unless you are brain impaired or brain dead--or do you?

If you were to read a whole page of really bad writing like the paragraph above, maybe you actually would not know, at least temporarily, what a brain was. According to the theory of semantic saturation, the more we read or hear a word a number of times in rapid repetition, the less able to the brain is to "pull up" the definition of the word so that we understand it.

3. Moral dumbfounding.

Most of us are pretty sure that the wicked witch in the story Hansel and Gretel, who fed the children gingerbread before trying to eat them, was morally in the wrong. We're opposed to stealing gifts from underneath the Christmas tree, or to supplementing one's diet with cannibalism.

But most of can't articulate exactly why it is we are opposed to "obvious" wrongs or in favor of "obvious" rights. Some truths are so self-evient we really aren't sure what and why they are. Maybe some social taboos are so deeply ingrained in our conscious minds that we simply cannot easily question them.

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4. Sensory deprivation.

It's really rare to wind up in a situation in which you are deprived of sensory input. Maybe you choose to spend some time in a sensory deprivation tank, or you are locked in a dark prison cell, get trapped under rubble in an earthquake, or suffer a vertebrobasilar stroke that doesn't kill but causes a condition called locked in syndrome. When our brains don't receive sensory inputs, however, they make them up. Researchers putting people in a specially soundproofed room called an anechoic chamber and then turning off the lights found that volunteers in the experiments began hallucinating colors and sounds as they stayed in the chamber.

More Ways Our Brains Play Tricks on Us

5. Sympathetic response.

Have you ever cringed when you saw someone slam a door on a finger? Or do you have to close your eyes when you see a depiction of pain on TV? If you do, you are experiencing a sympathetic response, in which your brain produces the same kind of reaction to seeing or hearing pain in others as it does when we experience these events for ourselves. Scientists believe that the sympathetic response occurs through the activity of parts of the brain called mirror neurons, which also enable a response to porn.

6. Implanted memories.

Our brains tend to fill in the gaps when we recall events or sensations from our pasts. And it's even possible to train the brain to believe in experiences that never occurred at all. In one experiment, researchers convinced a woman that she had been lost in a mall as a child, even though she had not. In the experiment, they were even able to lead their test subject to create details of the experience, such the clothes a woman who stopped to help in the mall--in her imagination--was wearing.

7. Hypnagogia.

People who have the sleepwalking condition narcolepsy sometimes see and hear things that aren't there, a group of delusions known as hypnagogia. Healthy people can also experience hypnagogia as they are waking up or faling asleep, seeing and hearing vividly, but only in their own brains. The brain can generate hallucinations when we are only partially conscious, and when we wake up, we may not be sure what was real and what was not.

8. Sleep drunkeness.

Sleep deprivation can make healthy people "sleep drunk," causing many of the symptoms of inebriation even when no drugs or alcohol were consumed. Lack of sleep is particularly dangerous in drivers, who may not know that they are impaired. In most countries, "impaired driving" by a sleep drunk individual is just as punishable as driving under the influence of alcohol, pills, or marijuana.

9. GPS Dependency.

Do you need to use GPS every time you drive? If you do, you might want to consider using it less because of a condition called GPS dependency. People who use GPS for every trip tend to develop overconfidence in their abilities to navigate city streets, and also tend to be more likely to get lost when they drive in unfamiliar territory. On the other hand, learning to get around without GPS may actually increase the size of your brain. Scientists studying London cabrivers, who have to know how to drive to 20,000 different points of interest along 20,000 streets within a 10-km (6-mile) radius actually grow gray matter as they learn their job.

Read More: 15 Ways To Tickle Your Brain

10. Ear worms.

Do you ever listen to a song that you later just can't get out of your head? If you do, you may be experiencing a phenomenon known as "ear worms." The way to get rid of "ear worms" is to focus on any activity different from the one that triggered the repeated sensation in your brain, choosing an activity that is neither so easy you can do it without effort or so hard that you want to give up.

At the end here are some common situations where our brain can deceive us:

1. Confirmation bias - Our brain tends to favor information that confirms our existing beliefs or biases, while disregarding contradictory evidence.

2. Cognitive dissonance - When faced with conflicting beliefs or information, our brain may distort reality or rationalize to reduce the discomfort caused by the inconsistency.

3. Selective attention - Our brain focuses on specific details or aspects of a situation while ignoring others, leading to a biased perception of reality.

4. Heuristic availability - Our brain relies on easily accessible information or recent experiences to make judgments or decisions, disregarding less readily available or statistically relevant data.

5. Emotional reasoning - Our brain can prioritize emotions over logical reasoning, leading us to make decisions or form beliefs based on our emotional state rather than objective facts.

In order to protect ourselves from these harmful brain tendencies, we can:

1. Practice critical thinking - Actively question and evaluate information, seeking multiple perspectives and evidence before forming conclusions.

2. Seek diverse sources of information - Expose yourself to a variety of viewpoints and sources to avoid confirmation bias and broaden your understanding of different perspectives.

3. By being aware of these cognitive biases and actively working to mitigate their influence, we can develop a more accurate and objective understanding of the world, protect ourselves from self-deception, and make better-informed decisions.

4. Engage in self-reflection - Regularly examine your own biases, beliefs, and emotional influences to better understand how they may affect your perception of reality.

5. Fact-check information - Verify the accuracy of information before accepting it as true, especially when it aligns with your existing beliefs.

6. Stay open-minded - Maintain a willingness to consider alternative viewpoints and revise your beliefs when presented with compelling evidence.

7. Consult others and encourage constructive feedback - Engage in discussions with others who may have different perspectives, and welcome feedback that challenges your assumptions.

By being aware of these cognitive biases and actively working to mitigate their influence, humans can develop a more accurate and objective understanding of the world, protect ourselves from self-deception, and make better-informed decisions.