Beliefs and the Brain
Why the brain needs beliefs
Beliefs are the brain’s self-made “maps” to quickly negotiate an environment or a new person. The brain is quick to form beliefs. Take meeting someone new. The brain quickly wants to know Friend or foe? Killer or healer? Useful or annoying? Easy-going or uptight? To help navigate (handle) the new person, it subjectively forms “first impressions” based on existing beliefs, previous experiences, and emotions. This first impression won’t be accurate or objective, but it’ll be fast and useful.
Here’s how the brain uses the three Beliefs-Types:
1. Beliefs in objective fact and theory are “maps” to help the brain navigate the real world. We rely on scientific knowledge to know what is real.
2. Faith-beliefs are the brain’s “maps” to navigate the unknown world; the unexplainable. They help develop meaning and purpose for life.
3. Opinions are subjective “maps” to help navigate the intangible worlds of ourselves, others and ideas.
When faced with a challenge to our view of reality – a “miracle” or a paranormal event – we explain it to ourselves according to our existing maps; our previous beliefs. This happens in the brain’s right frontal lobe.[i] Belief about faith issues is associated with the brain’s ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area important for emotion, sense of self, and will; and belief in facts involves memory.[ii] Believing that an event occurred and remembering it are two distinct processes; this causes problems in establishing what “really” happened.[iii] Many other brain areas are involved in belief: the anterior cingulate cortex (for empathy with people), the caudate (learning, thinking and feeling) and the anterior insula (empathy and emotions) among others.[iv] This complexity of neural networks underlines the importance of belief in the brain and its association with knowledge, emotions, will, and relating to other people.
But how do I know something’s true? To answer this, your brain draws upon knowledge, emotions and will. Let’s look at these.
Beliefs and knowledge
You know something’s true when you feel comfortable with it; when it’s in harmony with all the other knowledge and beliefs you have. This is called “cognitive ease.”[v] The happens on a societal level too. Very new ideas cause us cognitive dis-ease and are held at a distance before being tested and accepted.
To know something, you move past first impressions. You meet a new colleague: James will be part of our team and he’ll work close with you. Your brain is busy confirming and refuting your first-impression-beliefs about James. It searches memory banks about what you know about people called James and others who look and act like this person. At first, you’re making bold judgements based on emotions, needs, insecurities, and prior beliefs, but not on actual evidence. Then, slowly, you begin to be more objective and more accurate in your observations. You’re amassing evidence. Maybe my first impression was wrong. Aim to get to this stage quicker; keep your emotions in check. You get to talk to and “experience” James. This leads to more knowledge and evidence leading to more accurate beliefs. Knowledge and reason make for more objective accuracy in beliefs.
Aim to find objective knowledge wherever you can for more accurate beliefs.
Beliefs and emotions
Beliefs and emotions are closely linked.[vi] Emotions fuel and sustain faith-beliefs and opinions. Beliefs, in turn, then lead to the emotions you experience. If you’re in a race and believe you’ll win, you’ll be unhappy with second place. If you believe you’ll come last, you’ll be happy with second last. Emotion is belief-dependent.
Belief confirmed, desire fulfilled - happy
Belief refuted, desire frustrated - unhappy.
Emotions can over-ride beliefs: invitations to sex, more chocolate or driving really fast are often at odds with our belief in what’s “right” for us.[vii] Emotions presuppose your beliefs:
Believe you’re responsible for something? - Feel guilty.
Believe you’re not responsible? - Don’t feel guilty.
Believe you’re the star player? - Feel pride at winning.
Believe you’re just a part of the team? - Feel humbler.
Believe you’ll get a present? - Feel hope, then joy or disappointment.
Believe you’ll get nothing? - Less hope, but surprise if you get something.
Emotions influence belief to help your brain navigate life,[viii] but belief influences your emotions, so it’s a complex loop.
See a snake and believe it’s deadly? You’ll be fearful.
See a snake and KNOW it’s harmless? You’ll be calm.
Aim for knowledge for more accurate beliefs to temper your emotional reactions.
Beliefs and will
Your will resides in your orbitofrontal cortex.[ix] It’s you the decision-maker, the driver. Will and the orbitofrontal cortex are both poorly understood[x] but you use them both every day for every decision. A doctor can outline a treatment plan for you, but only you can decide to follow it or reject it. Everything is your choice; your will. Your choices, your will, influences your belief. You can choose which evidence to focus on and where to place your faith and trust. To some extent, you can therefore choose what to believe.
Your desire for food, sleep, and love is driven by biology, but your choice of what food to eat, where to sleep, and who to love are driven more by your will. Your will also drives what you will study, where you want to work or what to wear. These become an expression of your unique self. It’s up to you. You may be influenced by your culture and the people around you, but, hey, it’s still your choice. Choices shape your life. Intention, choice, autonomy and self-responsibility are part of being human.[xi] Ultimate “Free will” may or may not exist[xii] but daily we each make thousands of choices in how we express our “selves”.
Your will shapes your belief in scientific fact and theory: you decide which experts and evidence to trust and listen to; for example, a much higher percentage of atheists than theists choose to believe in evolution.[xiii] Will shapes your belief in faith issues: you can choose to accept or reject your childhood faith. Will shapes your opinions: if you believe I’m a loser but you decide I am sick and tired of this belief! you now no longer “believe” this old self-opinion, it’s now not your belief, it’s a menacing habit that needs changing (and that can be difficult). Know that you have a will and that you make decisions. You may be able to use this knowledge to help change problem beliefs if you choose to.
Belief in the brain
We can now crystalize an understanding of how belief works in the brain.
The brain uses belief as a map to negotiate life, and to bridge the gap between what is known and what is unknown (in science, metaphysics and opinions). It is linked to prior knowledge, emotions and will.
We will use this understanding in some science-based techniques to help change problem beliefs. Next, however, we examine a philosopher who thought about belief and belief change hundreds of years ago, and pretty much nailed it with his insights.
Cheers
[i] Williams, Caroline. “A user’s guide to the mind.” New scientist No 2989 4 October 2014, p37
[ii] Harris, Sam, et al. "The neural correlates of religious and nonreligious belief." PLoS one 4.10 (2009): e7272.
[iii] Scoboria, Alan, et al. "The role of belief in occurrence within autobiographical memory." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143.3 (2014): 1242.
[iv] Harris, S., Sheth, S. A., & Cohen, M. S. (2008). Functional neuroimaging of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. Annals of neurology, 63(2), 141-147.
[v] Daniel, Kahneman. "Thinking, fast and slow." (2017). P66
[vi] Reisenzein, Rainer. "Emotions as metarepresentational states of mind: Naturalizing the belief–desire theory of emotion." Cognitive Systems Research 10.1 (2009): 6-20.
[vii] Harlé, Katia M., Pradeep Shenoy, and Martin P. Paulus. "The influence of emotions on cognitive control: feelings and beliefs—where do they meet?." Frontiers in human neuroscience 7 (2013): 508.
[viii] Castelfranchi, Cristiano, and Maria Miceli. "Anticipation and emotion." Emotion-Oriented Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2011. 483-500.
[ix] Brass, Marcel, et al. "Imaging volition: what the brain can tell us about the will." Experimental brain research 229.3 (2013): 301-312.
[x] Hilgard, Ernest R. "The trilogy of mind: Cognition, affection, and conation." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 16.2 (1980): 107-117.
[xi] Brass, Marcel, et al. "Imaging volition: what the brain can tell us about the will." Experimental brain research 229.3 (2013): 301-312.
[xii] Kane, Robert. "The complex tapestry of free will: striving will, indeterminism and volitional streams." Synthese 196.1 (2019): 145-160. Lavazza, Andrea. "Free will and neuroscience: from explaining freedom away to new ways of operationalizing and measuring it." Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10 (2016): 262.
[xiii] Compare https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-family/atheist/views-about-human-evolution/ with https://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/religious-differences-on-the-question-of-evolution/ both retrieved 16 September 2020