Scientific Evidence That Your Brain Multiplies Problems

Many people complain that problems always come in two or three. They believe that once the problems begin, it seems that they never end. In many ways they are right. However, this is not an unfriendly twist on fate. Rather, we can attribute this to a cognitive imbalance because researchers have shown that the brain multiplies problems.

They reached this conclusion when they conducted several different experiments. So why do brain problems multiply? Despite being such a wonderful and complex organ, it also has its limitations.

Such limitations stem from the fact that the mind tends to create patterns for everything to save energy. However, these general patterns can lead to misunderstandings.

The important thing about the brain multiplying problems is that information allows us to be critical and attentive to how thoughts work and to set boundaries where necessary. Otherwise, the difficulties and the emotional expenses the brain creates can lead to unnecessary stress and problems.

The brain multiplies problems

To explain the mechanism by which the brain multiplies problems, psychologist David Levari of Harvard University used an illustrative comparison. He said that in the face of danger , the brain works in a similar way to security systems in the neighborhood.

Such systems are activated when neighbors begin to feel insecure in the local community for several reasons. The role of neighbors is to warn the neighborhood of the presence of strangers or suspicious acts that could lead to robbery or other crimes. When they discover that something is not right, they immediately notify the police so that they can take action.

These systems usually work and make neighbors feel relatively safe. However, it is logical to believe that the safety warnings will also decrease, but this does not happen. What usually happens is that the neighbors begin to see danger in situations or actions that did not previously arouse that suspicion.

It is as if an alarm that has gone off cannot be turned off. The brain works in a similar way. When alerts are triggered by the presence of a problem (and each problem involves an implicit danger), it fails to “turn off” or block them on its own and tends to feed them back.

A revealing experiment

After conducting several experiments, experts concluded that the brain multiplies problems. One of the most famous, which later became a viral test on social networks, was published in the prestigious journal Science .

To conduct the experiment, researchers gathered 1,000 participants with completely normal vision. The researchers showed the participants a picture that was composed of 1,000 dots with colors that ranged from a very intense blue to a deep purple. The different shades were distributed randomly.

Then they asked the participants to say which dots were blue and which were purple. During the first session, most people identified the blue dots without any problems.

However, the concept of blue seemed to grow more and more in the subsequent sessions. Thus, the participants finally thought that the spots that were clearly purple were blue. What does this mean?

The skew of the brain

The experiment shows that the brain actually tends to establish patterns in an increasingly rigid way. This is the reason why the participants, who first clearly distinguished blue and purple, then thought that all the spots were blue.

Why does this show that the brain multiplies problems? When we face a problem, a subjective danger signal appears. Then we try to solve the problem. However, even after we solve the problem, the brain continues to apply the recent risk factors to other phenomena that do not fall into that category at all.

Here is an everyday example. A person quarreled with his boss, and the quarrel affected them. Then they go to the desk and do not find their pen, not because it is gone, but because they are still affected and confused by the recent quarrel. It is not uncommon for this person to say, “Nothing is going well today,” even if that is not the case at all.

This also happens during pandemics, simply because of the size of the problem. It is not uncommon for a violent hurricane or an earthquake to be interpreted as a sign of the end of the world, although this is not the case. The brain is simply in waking mode, and that is why negative thoughts emerge.

In short, you need to be aware so that this bias does not hijack situations in your life.