A neurological challenge to the “worse is better” scenario
From Nature Neuroscience:
How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality
Abstract
Unrealistic optimism is a pervasive human trait that influences domains ranging from personal relationships to politics and finance. How people maintain unrealistic optimism, despite frequently encountering information that challenges those biased beliefs, is unknown. We examined this question and found a marked asymmetry in belief updating. Participants updated their beliefs more in response to information that was better than expected than to information that was worse. This selectivity was mediated by a relative failure to code for errors that should reduce optimism. Distinct regions of the prefrontal cortex tracked estimation errors when those called for positive update, both in individuals who scored high and low on trait optimism. However, highly optimistic individuals exhibited reduced tracking of estimation errors that called for negative update in right inferior prefrontal gyrus. These findings indicate that optimism is tied to a selective update failure and diminished neural coding of undesirable information regarding the future.
Posted by anon / uh on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:01 | #
“In time, everyone goes uh-ward.”
Of course, framing this matter as refuting only the “worst is better” crowd arbitrarily restricts the very grave implication for nationalism as a whole. If worse is just worse, then the predictive power of nationalism is entirely spurious, and we’re on the way out.
Wrong.
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2011/10/the-optimists-brain.html
It’s as though I was right, or something. Could it be that all ‘approach’, all ‘solutions’ — from butthexual Aryan futurism to Linderismo — are nothing but individual reactions to negative information under the influence of a fully functioning anterior cingulate cortex?