Caveman Logic: The Persistence of Primitive Thinking in a Modern World (42 page)

This should surprise nobody. Two thousand years is hardly time to alter fundamental things about the nature of a species, unless that species has the life span of a fruit fly. There has been far more technological change in two thousand years than change in our genome. We still go to war with a regularity that makes it clear that fighting and killing “outsiders” is fundamental to our nature. The manner in which we kill each other has evolved technologically, but the fundamental causes or the frequency of the act itself remain invariant. Conflict over territory or resources still triggers battle. Disagreement over supernatural belief systems is still reason to kill. “Death to the infidels!” is essentially the same message whether shouted by a Muslim in 2001 or a Catholic in 1200.

If there were no solution, it would hardly seem fair to spend an entire book identifying the problem. There
is
a solution. Every mental flaw discussed in this book can be remedied.

We are far from alone in identifying what is wrong with the human mind. In fact, examining the workings of human cognition—with both praise and criticism—has become something of a growth industry in publishing. For example, In
The Demon-Haunted World
, Carl Sagan offers a “Baloney Detection Kit”—a list of twenty common logical errors we use to support our favorite irrational conclusions.
⁶
These are part of what my students and I often refer to as a “bullshit detector.” This book cites other sources similar to Sagan’s work. You will find unique insights in each, as well as considerable overlap, both in identifying the problem and suggesting how to fix it.

Here is a shopping list of mental design flaws you can expect to encounter, not only in most like-minded books on the market, but also when examining your own experience.

1. Events that happen around you are not all under your control. Many have occurred quite apart from anything you did (or thought). If you insist on attempting to control everything, you will end up enmeshed in faulty cause-effect belief systems.

2. Realizing that you cannot control everything is only half the battle. You must then avoid the tendency to imagine causal agents and form “relationships” with these imaginary characters. Lack of control means lack of control. You cannot invent and endear yourself to an imaginary agent whom you hope to influence. This is simply an end run around the lack-of-control dilemma.

3. We have a strong tendency to see structure and patterns where none exist. It is useful to impose order on events, but we often venture too far in this direction. Randomness is a lot more prevalent in our world than we realize. Clouds and pizzas don’t have faces in them. You need to work hard to keep that hair-triggered pattern detector under control.

4. Our minds are wired to interpret things we see or hear. Much of what we respond to is fragmentary or incomplete and some of it may have originated
inside
our heads, not outside. Be open to the possibility that the raw material for some of the ghosts or gods or demons you detect resides inside your own mind. It doesn’t mean you’re crazy. In fact, it takes a sound and disciplined mind to hold off on those easy interpretations.

5. Many types of events occur almost continuously every day. Of necessity, there will be a huge number of coincidences. Most of them will be utterly devoid of meaning. Learn to accept coincidences for what they are. They do not need explaining.

6. Don’t be afraid to evaluate your beliefs, especially the most important ones in your life. If all you want is comfort and familiarity, you can disregard this advice. If you are looking for more, remember that scientific evaluation consists of more than accumulating positive cases and ignoring the negative ones. Think of some of your favorite beliefs. Ask yourself what it takes to refute them. Think of some positive evidence you’ve collected to strengthen these beliefs. If the
opposite
(i.e., negative evidence) had occurred, would you have considered changing those beliefs?

7. Beware of multiple endpoints: Some hypotheses or beliefs are stated so generally that many kinds of events can be taken as evidence. If you allow such vast amounts of cases to be “positive,” then confirmation is almost certain to occur. This is a far cry from “science” or “rationality.” It’s a prime case of Caveman Logic. Don’t mistake it for anything else.

8. Don’t minimize or fail to consider negative outcomes. They may not be memorable or particularly gratifying, but they are crucial to evaluating many hypotheses and beliefs. At the least, they should remind you that positive cases are actually numerators in fractions and may be less compelling than you believed.

9. Taking (8) above even further, most situations actually lend themselves to a 2 × 2 matrix. For example: I prayed, I didn’t pray. Something good happened, something good didn’t happen. Each one of those four cells contains information, although believers and nonbelievers alike tend to be persuaded by evidence from one particular cell. Examination of the full matrix is necessary to evaluate the underlying question.

10. Scientists place a premium on testing a random and representative sample of subjects. In real life, samples are usually very small and highly biased (i.e., nonrandom). Avoid drawing conclusions from such incomplete evidence, even if you happen to like the conclusions.

11. Chance, meaningless coincidences, and lack of control may not describe the world in which we want to live, but it is a good approximation of the one in which we find ourselves. You get two choices: a) acknowledge and accommodate the realities around us, or b) create a delusional cocoon in which to live. If you choose b), you’ll have no trouble finding others to live there with you. Again, it’s the fundamental choice: reality or comfort.

12. Interactions with Santa Claus can make anyone—from a child to an elderly person—feel good. Enjoy the moment; savor the Pavlovian conditioned response, the feelings, the thoughts, the memories. But
know
what you are doing. There is a big difference between enjoying Santa Claus and believing there really is a jolly old fat guy living at the North Pole.

Above all, keep this in mind: The basis for each of the tendencies and flaws we have identified is hardwired. Under certain circumstances, the circuits for these flaws may have provided a decided advantage to our ancestors. Those are the conditions that led to the selection of these mental modules in the first place, and which allow them to persist to the present day. It is an axiom in evolutionary psychology that even our finest adaptations can be made to look less than ideal when environmental conditions change. The solution here is not to purge the hardwired heuristic. You probably couldn’t even if you wanted to. That heuristic will remain a part of your mental apparatus, and that of your children’s children.

What you
can
do is surprisingly straightforward:

It may be a cliché, but
forewarned is forearmed
. If you know what to expect of your mind, you can deal with it when it happens. Remember, it may feel very natural as it’s happening. But that doesn’t make it valid. I can tell you exactly the conditions under which the Moon Illusion and the Muller-Lyer Illusion will occur. I expect them and, true to form, my mind provides the same faulty perceptions it did the last time I was in that situation. And so, forewarned as I am, I am prepared to discount the message and use other perceptual cues to reach a more accurate perception of what’s out there. It doesn’t matter that six persons may be kneeling by the side of the road, looking at the sky and shouting, “Praise the Moon!” It takes courage to stand alone. Remember, opting into an illusion is a high price to pay for company.

And the next time someone proudly tells you that he’s “spiritual” or “patriotic”—two much-vaunted qualities in today’s world— you might consider not falling in line to praise him. Of course, should you convey any disdain toward those qualities, you may find yourself defending your position with your fists.

That reaction is the heart of the matter. Caveman Logic will get you from loving your god or your country to hating someone else’s in short order. And once you conclude that your god and country are the best, it becomes harder and harder to tolerate that idiot across the border or in that nearby church. You’ve just got to make him understand the truth. There are rarely enough “Convert or Die” t-shirts to go around.

You will not eliminate these impulsive, faulty perceptions. But you can make the use of compensatory strategies more “natural” and more likely with each passing event. At first, the process will seem laborious and unnatural. The hardwired perception may seem utterly compelling. But it can be sidestepped in favor of a more reality-based alternative that you can have at the ready. To this end, use the list of twelve design flaws in a prescriptive way. Memorize the list or, at the least, familiarize yourself with it. Anticipate which of those flaws you are likely to be confronted with, given the situation you’ll be in. Know what to expect and be ready for it. Understanding the basis for each of these faulty perceptions is to arm yourself against them.

It may be helpful to think of our dependence on Caveman Logic as if it were a substance addiction. In this case, the addiction is shared by most members of the human race, affecting its pursuit of truth and perhaps even its survival. Just as heroin addicts, overeaters, alcoholics, and cigarette smokers tend to socialize with others who share their addiction, so do people whose lifestyle centers around belief in deities, angels, or space aliens.

Viewing Caveman Logic as an addiction raises our awareness of how difficult it can be to turn away from habitual ways of thinking or believing. Recovery from a substance addiction is rarely a smooth or overnight process. It takes effort and persistence to wean oneself away. Occasional relapses, especially partial ones, are normal. We are not suggesting a twelve-step program for Caveman Logic “addicts,” but some support along the way, perhaps from a local humanist association or Unitarian church, may be helpful. In her one-woman show, actress Julia Sweeney offers a vivid account of the gradual and painful journey she made from childhood indoctrination in the Catholic church to atheism in her adult life. Sweeney’s performance, currently available on DVD (
www.juliasweeney.com
), is well worth seeing.

Although we can anticipate how our minds will misfire, we cannot always anticipate exactly which environmental triggers we will encounter. Most of us are inundated with fragmentary or confusing information all the time. It is just those conditions that trigger the heuristics whose overapplication often causes us problems. When things are happening fast, take a step back. See the inadequacy of the information for what it is. Suppress the impulse to let the heuristic do all the work. If a lion is chasing you, or an enemy is lurking among your so-called friends, it is probably a good idea to go with your hardwired, evolved circuitry. But in a multitude of other circumstances when the stakes are not quite so high, it is permissible to bring some of your more modern and voluntary brain mechanisms to the table.

The alternative to each of these faulty perceptions and beliefs is easy to describe. If your mind is ready to scream “pattern!” in your ear, the alternative is “nonpattern.” Nothing there. No face in the clouds. No Blessed Virgin in the grilled cheese sandwich. Just pure chance or, more to the point, pure cheese. If someone is raving about a “hot hand” by your favorite member of the Boston Celtics or a batting streak by one of the New York Mets, be ready to question it. Ask whether the feel-good display you’re both watching really exceeds a chance distribution of hits and misses. When a psychic makes claims for his uncanny accuracy, stop and examine the evidence. Was his “uncanny ability to predict” based on multiple endpoints? What happened to all the negative cases? In fact, confronted with any supernatural or paranormal claim, remember the Randi Foundation and their standing offer. If what you’re seeing is real, then you’re a million bucks richer. It’s a sobering reminder that such claims are probably bogus. Some may reflect outright fraud, but most are just naively evaluated instances of pure chance. Wishful thinking by hungry and untrained minds.

Had it not been for some special moments in your life, that might have been you on your knees, praising the Lord, taking your kids to a creationist theme park, believing that “things happen for a reason,” or seeing the face of Jesus in a slice of pizza. You were born just as predisposed to those beliefs and perceptions as you were to learning language. Something went right for you. You obviously worked hard not to indulge Caveman Logic, even while those around you were lining up to embrace it. Maybe you were immunized against it at an early age. But whatever your good fortune, make no mistake about it: you still share those old circuits and predispositions with the vast majority of humanity. If nothing else, that gives you some insight into the problem. You have some idea about the power of Caveman Logic and what it takes to overcome it.

Having read this book or one like it, it is a little harder to claim that yours is an untrained mind. You are now officially infected with the skeptic bug. Your childhood religious training may prompt you to accept naive beliefs or perceptions, but you’re going to think twice before acting on them. Like it or not, a more enlightened adult view has moved into your mind. It may be hard to get rid of it. You are stuck with a richer, more accurate awareness of the universe around you.

And so, here we are—a species with some extraordinary mental abilities. In fact, as pure abstract thought and symbolic processing go, there is no species on Earth that comes close to our abilities. As we have noted before, our problem is not with the adequacy of the cognitive mechanisms we have inherited; it is with the inability to turn them off. They work all too well and too frequently.