In this blog, I have pointed out the importance of the
subconscious in determining behavior. I
have read the analogy of seeing the conscious mind as a rider on top of an
elephant, the subconscious. While the
rider can sort of guide the elephant, once the enormous animal determines to go
a certain way, the rider is just that: someone going along for the ride. I would say that most of our education
assumes that the subconscious, at best, is an incidental source or determiner
of our behavior. This is a faulty assumption
in that it gives short shrift to the true nature of the power the subconscious
plays in our decision-making processes.
This is especially true in our social studies, including our civics
instruction.
This bias is not a product of mal-intent. It is a product, mostly, of ignorance, an
ignorance not limited to our educators but to us generally. But this is changing, and quite quickly. There is a significant amount of relatively recent
and current research on the role our subconscious plays in decision-making. One insight that has emerged from this
research is the relative strength of the subconscious in its ability to take in
information. Some estimates hold that
the mind can take in 11 million pieces of information at any one time, whereas
the conscious mind is limited to forty pieces of information. What the conscious mind does is create
narratives out of all that information.
And the thing is that subconscious information is hot, as in laced with
emotions. The conscious puts order to
all that, but it does not eliminate those feelings.[1]
One unfortunate bit of history is that our concern with the
subconscious was initiated with the work of Sigmund Freud. Not to denigrate the contributions of Freud,
but he placed our awareness of the subconscious with sexual drives. Yes, sex is part of the story, but only one
part. A lot more is going on with our
subconscious. One other concern, for
example, is our views of politics and governance. Therefore, civics related theory and planning
need to address the effects of the subconscious on political decisions. We need a whole area of research that
addresses this area of our thinking and feeling.
I will leave you with one thought. Our subconscious has, as we approach
adulthood, a great deal of subconscious “baggage” when it comes to politics. This is true even for those young people who
don’t give much conscious thought to the subject. A lot of it can be of the nature that “justifies”
a person’s indifference. Even for those
people, as the experiences of life might intrude in this indifference, such as
when confronted with unexpected taxes or fees, or an un-neighborly neighbor, or
an unpleasant encounter with a policeperson, these subconscious feelings and
ill-defined beliefs come into play. Even
for this type of person, one finds it difficult to have an objective discussion
about the problem. That built-up baggage
plays its role, and conclusions about authority and government readily interfere
with the now involved person being able to see what is really going on. In such a state, a person finds it difficult
to interact in mutually advantageous ways.
I will, in future postings, visit this subject again.
[1] Brooks, D.
(2011). The social
animal: The hidden sources of love,
character, and achievement. New
York, NY: Random House.
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