Quiz 3 - Compellingness Flashcards
What makes an experience compelling?
Compelling experiences
Draw our attention
Hold our attention
Desire to repeat experience
Make us have positive association with experience
Feel they are important
We have a desire to understand
If facts or explanations we are more likely to believe them for non-rational reasons
Examples of compelling experiences
Arts and nature - music, dance, sunsets, etc.
Theories - astrology, legends, conspiracies, etc.
Sports and games - football, role playing games, etc
Quotes
News
Jokes
What is the compellingness theory?
- We are interested in social status and our role in it
- We are compelled to believe things we hope or fear to be true
- We are attracted to patterns
- We are drawn to achieve goals, solve puzzles and resolve contradictions
- Our biological natures and psychological biases introduce a host of constrains on what we find compelling
Compellingness Theory - 1. Social Status
Dunbar - we are wired to think socially
Understanding social atmosphere gives one a competitive advantage
We find dealing with people and social relationships compelling
Drama in narrative - making and losing allies/enemies - sexual relationships - favours owed - secrets - competing agendas
- Social Status - Narrative
All stories have characters and conflict
We try to explain science this way
We turn objects into people
- Social Status - Gossip
Social bonding
Secrets
What makes gossip juicy - your own social standing in the world - threats to that make juicy gossip
News - stories - plays to elements of compellingness
Conspiracy theories - we have an overactive social explanation detector
Conspiracy theories are always about people and their secrets
- Social Status - Sports
People in conflict
I group/out group (we cheer for the home team)
Animals play fight to resolve conflict and attract mates
- Social Status - Alien abduction theory
“Greys” - are humanoid looking, secretive and their abduction stories involve sex and violence
Most bad science (pseudoscience) involves people, at least indirectly ie. aliens, astrology, crystal healing, etc.
Religions personify Gods and spirits with desires, personalities and beliefs
Compellingness Theory - 2. Hope and Fear
Fear - more compelled by fear
Negativity bias - tend to believe without proof ie microwave causes cancer
We are more inclined to believe dangerous generalizations
Hope - we believe something beneficial
Confirmation bias, wishful thinking, 15+ positive illusions
We want to feel good about ourselves ie. optimism bias, planning bias, choice supportive bias, etc.
Anti - sweet spot - middle of fear and hope
- Hope and Fear - Plastic Arts
Landscapes - water, Longview, blue - looks like a great place to live
Beautiful people - because could be good reproductive partner
Horrific images - rubberneck - looking at horrific accident slows traffic - we look because we feel it is important - we might learn and avoid same thing
Mind doesn’t interpret any differences from picture or real person/place
- Hope and Fear - Stories
Urban legends - more likely to spread if cautionary tale - plays off fears
Bad science - we are easy to scare ie vaccine causes death
Suckers for hope ie Chrystal healing - quick remedies
- Hope and Fear - Religion
Hope for an afterlife
Threats of divine punishment
Cognitive dissonance and proselytizing ie cults
Christians - hell not likely - Muslims - Hell very likely
Conspiracy theories are frightening
Hidden agendas make it especially pernicious - disconfirming evidence viewed as a cover up
Confirmation bias
Compellingness Theory - 3. Patterns, repetition, things easy to understand
We are rewarded for finding regularity/pattern in world
Textures, tempos, prediction, order
Patterns - left/right symmetry - indicates living things - more compelling than top/bottom
Less processing for things easy to understand - people believe, more clear, pleasant, less risky etc.
colour of font makes more believable if easier to read
- Patterns and Repitition - Plastic Arts
Matching colours
Complexity
Certain amount of pattern and white space, repetition of colour, etc.
Fractal patterns - broccoli type pattern
Narratives - symbols repeated - haiku - more liked are ones easier to understand
Book titles - short name - easier to understand/remember
Quotations - rhyme pattern
Repetitions - availability cascade ie Religious beliefs
Music - hearing songs again and again - same instruments in a piece, musical motifs, verses and choruses repeat - familiarity with genre
Compellingness theory - 4. Incongruity - resolving puzzles and contradictions
We are altricious - born and need to learn vs precocious ie bird born knows how to do things
Thin cortex predicts intelligence - we practice learning - how to
Looking paradigm is based on incongruity and puzzles
Related to dopamine releases
