??Book review: Look Again by Tali Sharot, Cass Sunstein

The Google Talks video below had been on my Watch Later list for a long time, so a few weeks ago, I watched it and I couldn't escape from buying the book.

I've already finished the book, and I can certainly say: "No regrets". This small part of the video could summarize a significant portion of beliefs and guides that I have been following throughout my life:

In this book review, I will share some very interesting things that I learned, of course, in a superficial way, but I hope that could be enough to awaken your curiosity to know more.?

#The First days

In 2018, I went to Portugal for a two-week vacation. I can clearly remember that the first week was very exciting, but the second one not so much. Same beautiful and safe place, how can I explain that feeling?

Well, that is the habituation feeling they try to explain in this book. It is strange to think that only two weeks can bring to us this habituation, but throughout the book, the authors explain and demonstrate that most of the time we do not notice, but habituation is already there.

#Intellectually vs. Emotionally

Don't get me wrong, I was in another country, on my first solo trip abroad. I know it was a great moment, but as they explain in the Chapter 1, the emotions are disassociated from our intellect. The "feeling" habituates faster than the "knowing". And, Why does the emotional brain mechanism habituate so fast?

#Busybodies (Explorers) vs. Hunters (Exploiters)

Before going deeper into the whys, let me explain one point: different people have different times to feel habituation.

Let me use myself as an example. When I am in a job where I am no longer able to learn, boredom sets in, and I move to another challenge. In 2019, I was in a very nice job with a kind environment. I really liked my colleagues, but I felt it was time to move and grow. Sometimes things go wrong; in that time, I went to a company that fired me 5 months later because of the COVID pandemic, but I still considered that decision was the best for me.

On the other hand, I have a bunch of friends that stay in the same company just because it is OK (sometimes it is not), but they want to stay in the known environment, with the known activities and teammates. They like security, and no big changes.

These two types of people are: the explorers and the exploiters, respectively. One very important insight from the book is that both types can be very successful, and you can assume different types through different aspects of life.

#So, why does the brain habituate?

Through the chapters, they explain to us that habituation, in some way, could be a good thing. Our brain tries not to waste time with things that are not changing or could cause us some negative effects. For example, it allows us to work with noise sounds around us, not care about strange but safe smells. However, when we see something new, different, dangerous, or suspicious, our brain has the ability to notice and try to move to a safe condition.

On the other hand, sometimes we can habituate to bad things like discrimination, gender inequality, violence, etc. For these problems, they provide some ways to overcome these barriers, even if it means having a dishabituation entrepreneur close to us.

#The Illusory Truth Effect

This phenomenon occurs because, as they explain, we have the tendency to believe in things that are repeated several times to us. This explain why fake news are so dangerous and powerful. This phenomenon justifies why we believe that humans use only 10% of their brain. It is not true, but I am 31 years old and always heard this as an absolute truth. Only last year I read a book and discovered that this statement is not true.

#Metacognitive Myopia

Another very interesting psychological term they showed us is metacognitive myopia, when we do not pay attention to the complete information, but only for the main point. Even if someone tells us the previous information was a joke, we tend to still believe in the first thing. This behavior makes headlines a challenge for all journalists.

#Risk habituation

This concept caught me attention. I always say to those around me, "the problem is exactly when we have so much confidence". The authors describe this feeling as the risk habituation, the human tendency to habituate to some risky activities, like driving, and give less and less attention to it.

#Prediction Errors

In the last chapters, they delve into my field.

They explain why the women are less happy when they become more free. Okay, it sounds very incorrect, but let me explain. They showed that the women, before having their rights guaranteed by law, were happier that after. At that time, the expectation for a common woman was to have kids, stay at home, and basically take care of the family and the house. The expectations were low and the happiness was high. However when we started to gain the rights by law but the reality did not change so much, women became less happy. High expectations, low happiness.

#Each Act is Worse than the Last, but Only a Little

“...that a thousand things which had seemed unnatural and repulsive speedily became natural and ordinary to me. I suppose everything in existence takes its colour from the average hue of our surroundings.” — H. G. Wells

And last, but not least, let's use this phrase above to only highlight that some terrible things that occur in the world, like the wars, could be , in some way, explained by the habituation.

I do not know you, but I always ask myself why the common people accept this? But the government makes the things exactly so that people do not notice. Small actions , one after another, could pass without the common citizen noticing, or even remembering.

#Curiosities??

#Henry Francis Valentine

The book present us with the story of the Henry Valentine, who was a robber and was killed by a policeman in the old television series The Twilight Zone.

Henry arrived at a place where he had all the good things every single day, and Pip, his guardian angel, who must deliver him all this stuff. Some time after, Henry needed to cope with boredom, and asked Pip to move him to another place, one with burning-hot flames, but to his surprise, Pip said: "It is already here".

#One Dishabituation Entrepreneur

Yael Niv launched her website to demonstrate the difference between the presence of male and female neuroscientist speakers in conferences. Making gender bias more transparent and making the organizers quite uncomfortable can be a necessary change.

See the site below:

https://biaswatchneuro.com/