[Lee Yongbeom's Psychology of Happiness] The Shortcut to Instantly Solving Confusing and Doubtful Problems: Faith

<29> Faith That Secretes Happiness

Iyongbeom Novelist

People believe in all sorts of things that seem like they belong in fantasy movies?ghosts, aliens, the afterlife, lost ancient civilizations. Moreover, those who hold such beliefs often think that invisible forces are systematically concealing the truth. Among them are quite a few educated intellectuals. Why do smart people believe in strange things?

The Temptation of Belief

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Thomas Kida, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, pointed out six common errors people tend to make in his book Don't Believe Everything You Think. People prefer stories over objective statistics, firmly accept their existing beliefs or inferences as correct, and assign their own meanings whenever interpreting events. They also misperceive the world, oversimplify, and have imperfect memory systems. Yet, we mistakenly believe that the stories, beliefs, meanings, facts, and memories we choose are correct.

Belief is a shortcut that instantly resolves confusing and doubtful issues. The moment we doubt the uncertain, invisible, or unknown, the brain becomes complicated. Unresolved questions and uncertainty cause stress. However, if we simply believe what we have inferred, no problems arise. The brain dislikes wasting energy unnecessarily. Therefore, it easily surrenders to firm beliefs, the illusion of control, and the belief that the nature of that control is very simple. The order, balance, and symmetry gained from this comfort the brain. This is the role of belief.

Once a belief is accepted, the brain gathers all evidence that can support or back it up to build a strong fortress. To protect existing beliefs, it collects absurd scraps and wraps them in a solid iron armor. This psychological tendency is called 'confirmation bias.' Once confirmation bias kicks in, logical conversation or debate becomes impossible.

Psychologists say humans are innately predisposed to form beliefs and protect them. We have brains that shamelessly deceive ourselves to expand and preserve existing beliefs. Humans are the only animals that self-deceive. People resist changing beliefs once formed because belief itself brings pleasure and reinforces the idea that they are right. Thus, we do not see what we believe; we believe what we see.

The Inescapable Chain of Causality

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When the audience sees a card that had seemingly vanished appear from the magician’s mouth, they cheer. They cheer because the magician has done something physically impossible. How can a card disappear with just a gesture, and how does it appear from the magician’s mouth? When something strange happens, the brain tries hard to find a cause.

In the past, ancestors could not know the reasons for nature’s capricious changes, so they had to infer causes purely through imagination. Religious scholar Mircea Eliade mentioned the suffering experienced by primitive people in The Myth of the Eternal Return. The cause of a wound from an animal’s horn is clear. But not only bodily wounds, but incurable diseases, family deaths, droughts or heavy rains, and a decrease in game also caused human suffering. Primitive people believed that this sudden, inexplicable suffering was due to past mistakes they had committed. Who has the power to forgive past mistakes and heal suffering? Eliade inferred that such questions were the starting point of shamanism.

We have a desire to explain events around us causally. Understanding causality reduces fear of uncertainty because knowing the cause increases the possibility of control. Thus, humans evolved the ability to find connections between things and phenomena. This ability was very useful because knowing causality allows planning actions and predicting outcomes. Humans seem to be the only species that can predict results and act based on causality. Chimpanzees quickly learn that pressing a lever yields food but do not perceive causality between actions.

The problem is that causal thinking sometimes causes errors. These errors appear in two forms: 'Type I error' and 'Type II error.' Imagine walking in a forest and encountering a rattling snake. When unsure if it is venomous, it is safer to believe all snakes are poisonous. A moment’s carelessness could cost your life. Believing in a non-existent danger (Type I error) increases survival rates. Conversely, Type II error is believing in a danger that does not exist or believing in causality where none exists. The belief that performing a rain ritual will bring rain is an example. Although rain rituals have no effect, they provide psychological comfort. This is why we easily fall into superstition and magic.

Michael Shermer, who has focused on exposing pseudoscience, summarized the characteristics of belief in The Believing Brain as threefold: patternicity, agenticity, and confirmation bias. First, patternicity is finding patterns in random and arbitrary information. Seeing animal shapes in clouds or a devil’s face in smoke at a terror scene are examples. Second, agenticity is perceiving intentional agency behind events or phenomena. By anthropomorphizing objects and phenomena, people perceive that someone intentionally intervenes in human life. For example, people interpret droughts and floods as the wrath of gods. Third, confirmation bias is gathering only evidence that supports one’s beliefs. People with fanciful beliefs quickly find patterns in irregular and random information and attribute intentions to invisible entities. When combined with confirmation bias, this becomes truth. Ghosts, demons, and aliens are created through this process.

The Brain That Secretes Belief

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The brain is not an organ for thinking but for action. We sense, predict, plan, decide, and act with the brain. In fact, most of our actions do not require conscious thought because many are performed unconsciously. Ultimately, what we seek through action is happiness. Happiness is a guiding light that leads us to behaviors favorable for survival, and unhappiness is a warning light that signals to avoid behaviors harmful to survival. The 'belief circuit' is an extension of the brain’s neural circuits that controlled behavior. The brain prefers certainty, clarity, and predictability. Belief is fast, simple, and intuitive. It instantly removes uncertainty and ambiguity. Although belief is not logical or rational, once formed, it reduces the cost the brain must pay. Belief is an innate characteristic of the brain.

The brain feels more comfortable believing than doubting. Therefore, belief makes us happy. This can be seen in religious believers who seek sanctuaries with joy despite harsh daily lives. Religious belief provides clear answers to the brain’s questions about the reason for existence and the afterlife. If one cannot be happy in reality, humans want to enjoy happiness after death.

Religious stories also give us satisfaction. They contain oppression, suffering, and wandering in the real world, dramatic returns and spiritual victories, promises and warnings about the future. These stories are the gospel that spreads happiness. For this reason, people temporarily escape reality and come to believe in the worlds they imagine. Religion offers what people want to believe and guarantees in the name of God that those beliefs will come true. When many believe, it becomes truth.

Lee Yongbeom, Novelist