Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain

by Shankar Vedantam

Long before psychologists and neuroscientists began investigating the brain systematically, at least two groups of laypeople realized they had a lot to gain by studying the mind: magicians and con artists. Magicians understood that even when people think they are paying close attention to something, the limitations of the brain prevent them from taking in most of what is really going on. They discovered that the brain is a story-generation machine, and therefore vulnerable to narratives—and red herrings. They realized that our expectations powerfully shape what we see, and that by manipulating those expectations, they could control how we think and what we see. Like magicians, con artists and charlatans have long understood that the human capacity for understanding and rationality is “bounded,” that our capacity for logic and reason is hemmed in by our hopes and fears. For thousands of years, swindlers and hucksters have been using the machinery of the self-deceiving brain to turn us into marks.