Politics: Selective Perception

This blog is not going to be about art. It is not even going to be about Salvador Dali...I'll save that for another time. I am just using the painting on the left to make a bit of a point about yesterday's blog.

Some of you might have thought that it was a rant about whether, or not, God exists. It wasn't about that at all. It was about selective perception . The painting here is a portrait of the beautiful Mae West, while being a picture of a room with a curtained doorway at the same time.


I was reading an article yesterday at http://www.livescience.com. The article discusses a study at Emory University in which brain functions and activities were monitored while the subjects, people from both sides of the political divide in the United States, were presented with contradicting statements made by their own candidates and the candidate from the other side.

While each subject was quick to register the contradictions made by opposing candidate, they completely disreguarded similar contradictions made by their own candidate.

This shows that both Democrats and Republicans are equally capable of making decisions, without letting facts get in their way. This is selective perception in practice. You can read the article for yourselves if you wish, I think you'll find it both funny and disturbing.

All lies and jest

Still a man hears what he wants to hear

And disreguards the rest

(Paul Simon)