Blue or white dresses, Yanni v. Laurel, red spades, and a little “Orange Man bad!”

Be aware of what you think, it alters what you perceive!

Is it blue with black trim? Or is it yellow with white trim?

Do you remember that “what color is this dress?” controversy that swept across the Internet in 2015? It originated in Scotland from a family argument about a possible choice for a wedding dress. A picture was sent: See this nice blue dress? A reply came back: What blue/black dress? That’s white/gold!

It went viral. First on Facebook, then everywhere. What color did you see? Why do others disagree? Screen settings? Differences in retina cells? Or is it something deeper?

Is it an auditory hallucination? Or is it just how our brains “work”?

Here’s another thing that went viral online. Remember “Yanni” v. “Laurel”? People all across the world would click PLAY and all hear the same sound, the same set of auditory vibrations.

But some people heard, clear as day, “Laurel”. Others heard “Yanni”. Hilarious arguments ensued. An even better one is the “brainstorm” v. “green needle” example. Try it out for yourself. Play the sound on a loop. You’ll experience it in real time.

Focus on one set of letters and here one thing. Focus on the other and hear something completely different. Priming alters perception. What you think impacts what you perceive.

Proof that your mental paradigm determines what you “see”:

In 1949 some scholars named Bruner and Postman did a fascinating study. The subjects were told they were being tested to measure their visual acuity using pictures of playing cards flashed on a screen for fractions of a second to see how quickly the subjects could correctly identify the card.

But as you heard on the episode, the study actually revealed something much more interesting. Our expectations alters our perceptions. We see what we are primed to see. When the weird cards were flashed, the subjects wouldn’t seem puzzled, they wouldn’t balk, they would simply report seeing… something they didn’t see.

Our opinions, our “mindset” impact what we see and hear… and think.

Cognitive dissonance demands it! Do you remember hearing Donald Trump calling white nationalists “fine people”? Sorry, but you didn’t. It was a hoax.

Remember when he suggested that we should “drink bleach” to treat COVID? Nope. That didn’t happen either. Trump was referencing a product being tested by Aytu Bioscience at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA.

Again, we humans see what we are primed to see – what we want to see. Did Trump really praise white supremacists and suggest guzzling Clorox, or did you see a red six of spades and imagine it was really black?

A great little book about the brain:

A very concise but powerful book that describes what our brains are up to is On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the PalmPilot and Treo smart phone, among other things.

Adam’s “other” gig:

The Nevada Libertarian Party Presents: The Battleborn Podcast

Co-hosted by fellow Nevadan Randy Sadac, the LPNV’s Battleborn podcast features commentary about goings on in Nevada from a liberty perspective. Here you can find some great interviews with people doing great things to advance liberty in the state of Nevada, and beyond.

Don’t miss their great interview with economist (and libertarian superhero) Bob Murphy!

Randy and Adam Interview Robert Murphy

Brian’s empire of great content:

BrianDOLeary.com

Where you’ll find all of the interesting things Brian is up to, including:

• The O’Leary Review – Writing and associated Podcast
• The Brian D. O’Leary Show
• Who Is In The Tom Woods World?
• and more.

While you’re there, don’t forget to buy Brian a coffee. He’ll greatly appreciate it, especially a darker roast.

Adam also runs on coffee, and he would greatly appreciate any contributions that listeners would like to make to help keep him in front of the microphone and producing content.

O’Leary Digital

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