Beliefs are passed from person to person, like a contagious virus, through conversation. In this analogy, conversation is like a sneeze and the words and stories that carry and spread beliefs are like the sneeze droplets that carry and spread the virus. Communication is just one way to spread beliefs, but as we all know, word of mouth spread is powerful. We speak to one another, professing our acculturated points of view on the biggest and smallest of things, and if the person we’re talking to is open, is susceptible, they catch our beliefs. And it works both ways. When others share their stories, perspectives, and opinions with us, if we’re listening, we catch their beliefs, for better or worse. We catch worrisome beliefs, fears, and doubts from others. We also catch optimistic beliefs, hopes, and confidence from them. And the beliefs we catch shape us. How does this work? This week, I’ll blog about the spread and impact of fearful beliefs and next weak optimistic beliefs.
CATCHING FEARFUL BELIEFS
Consider the following scenario. Imagine you’re a participant in an experiment. You walk into a lab where a researcher in a long white coat greets you and sits you down in front of a computer screen. She hits the enter key to display a blue square and tells you that in the experiment when you see this square, you may receive an electric shock. She hits enter again to display a green square and tells you that during the experiment, when you see this square, you will never receive a shock. You give her the ok to begin the experiment, and she sets you up inside an MRI scanner. As you watch squares display on a screen one at a time, the scanner captures images of your brain. How do you think you would respond to blue squares as compared to green squares? What if you were never actually shocked, would you be afraid of the blue squares?
If you are anything like the participants in Phelps and colleagues’ study at NYU, you would feel threatened by the blue squares but not the green squares, even if you were never actually shocked during the experiment. Participants in this experiment showed 2 threat responses to the shock-related square as compared to the other square. First, participants showed heightened activity in their left amygdala, a region important for identifying possible threats and rewards in the environment. Second, participants displayed a heightened sweat response to the shock-related square, which is a measure of arousal in the body. These responses, which normally mean that our bodies are allocating resources to fight or flee for our lives, were activated when participants merely saw a square on a screen. Remember, they were never actually shocked in the experiment. They were just told that they would be shocked. This study shows us that beliefs about impending danger, spread from one person to another, can impact our brains and bodies even when there’s nothing to fear.
What beliefs have you caught that may be causing you to see threats that don’t actually exist?
Here’s a reference to the study: Phelps, E.A., O'Connor, K.J., Gatenby, J.C., Grillon, C., Gore, J.C. & Davis, M. (2001). Activation of the human amygdala to a cognitive representation of fear. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 437-441
t: kbickart
fb: Kevin Bickart
Kevin is an MD/PhD student at Boston University studying the Neurobiology of Belief
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment