Vegan Friend

 Today's lesson from the book Incognito was on attraction. In an earlier chapter, we learn that men are more attracted to women with large pupils, but do not realize that is the reason. Several studies bore this out. This section goes deeper into attraction, and asks questions like Why aren't we attracted to frogs? Meaning, what causes us to be attracted to those we are attracted to. A lot of it is subonscious. For example, when we catch just a fleeting glimpse of someone, we often find them instantly attractive, and research shows that that first glance is the most attractive someone will ever seem to us. Sort of an instinctual form of FOMO.   But it's more than that. pheremones play a part. One example provided is babies, offered a choice of several blankets, will choose the one that had been pressed against their mother's breast. Another more interesting example, to me, is that we are attracted to smells different from our own, which prevents us from finding our sibl...

Incognito's author would go so far as to say that consciousness is useless, but then qualifies that statement. What's certain is that the unconscious mind does far more than most of us are consciousof. A group of people unable to retain short term memory were in a study in which they were taught to play tetris. The following day, they had no recollection of this, but their ability to play the game was on the same level as right after they were taught. Some had reported seeing colored shapes falling from the sky in their dreams. There's more. Plenty more examples of where the unconscious mind controls our actions and decisions against our wills. People end up in relationships with someone with the same first letter in their name more frequently than randomness would allow. You're more likely to believe something that's familiar. A group was presented sentences that contained a false fact, and then a week later were asked to rate the veracity of a series of statements...