An epigram to set the mood:
"It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives."
--Francis Bacon
I certainly wouldn't describe the scenario you describe as the result of hardwiring--in fact, I probably shouldn't use the term hardwiring to describe anything about the human mind, it is so plastic and malleable.
Yet we can see some "atomic" level mental phenomena that mirror such disconnects, and I think confirmation bias is one of them.
Experimental subjects asked to turn over cards to prove or disprove a proposed rule connecting the two sides invariably seek confirmatory evidence, fail to seek negative evidence, and often ignore negative evidence when it turns up.
Science implicitly recognizes this tendency and is structured to combat it.
As Wiki puts it:
Confirmation bias is a type of statistical bias describing the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. In inductive inference, confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias toward confirmation of the hypothesis under study. To compensate for this observed human tendency, the scientific method is constructed so that we must try to disprove our hypotheses.
That's dry and intellectualized, but the effect can profoundly shape our perceptions and conclusions about the world around us.
Here is an excellent passage from skepdic.com:
Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs. For example, if you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions occur during other nights of the month. A tendency to do this over time unjustifiably strengthens your belief in the relationship between the full moon and accidents and other lunar effects.
This tendency to give more attention and weight to data that support our beliefs than we do to contrary data is especially pernicious when our beliefs are little more than prejudices. If our beliefs are firmly established upon solid evidence and valid confirmatory experiments, the tendency to give more attention and weight to data that fit with our beliefs should not lead us astray as a rule. Of course, if we become blinded to evidence truly refuting a favored hypothesis, we have crossed the line from reasonableness to closed-mindedness.
If a human consciousness is shaped by such effects for many years, without any sort of corrective training, education, or influence, then the result can appear quite insane. The more we wish our beliefs to be confirmed, the less evidence we require to enjoy that confirmation.
I'm not arguing that this one phenomenon explains the type of behavior you describe, but I would argue that it is foundational.
And I'm not sure I agree that religion has evolved ever better techniques. They seem pretty much the same now as they were thousands of years ago.
The book, Everything She Ever Wanted, sounds fascinating. I'll check it out.
This message has been edited by Omnivorous, 02-11-2006 10:49 PM
"Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?"
-Sir Toby Belch,
Twelfth Night
Save lives! Click here!Join the World Community Grid with Team EvC!---------------------------------------
™ Version 4.2