Aside from scoring a point for Spinoza, this research sheds some light on the cognitive basis for why certainty comes so much easier to us than doubt. But if this is a neurological truth, it is also, and more self-evidently, an emotional one. Certainty might be a practical, logical, and evolutionary necessity, but the simplest truth about it is that it feels good. It gives us the comforting illusion that our environment is stable and knowable, and that therefore we are safe within it. Just as important, it makes us feel informed, intelligent, and powerful. When we are certain, we are lords of
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