"Let's take a look at how we humans are hardwired to explain this unique phenomenon of distraction. The elegant neural architecture of our brains enables us to engage in a powerful acquisition of knowledge, and to also undertake complex rational thought. This is mostly achieved via the engagement of our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. We are, as a species, fully equipped to learn."
"However, our limbic system, the most ancient part of our brain, still acts in a dominant way, deeply prioritizing our short-term survival. It is why we constantly scan in a hypervigilant (and often unconscious) way for immediate threats, and why our reward circuits (e.g., dopamine receptors) richly reward us when we indulge in survivalist-focused behaviors. It also explains our vulnerability to distraction, which means that often we cannot engage in our rational ability to analyze at all."
Human brains combine powerful learning and rational capacities driven by the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus with older limbic systems that prioritize short-term survival. The limbic system produces hypervigilance and strong reward responses that favor immediate threats and gratification over deliberative thought. Fake news and cognitive warfare exploit those survival-focused instincts by triggering reactive emotion and bypassing analytical processing. Societies repeatedly accumulate historical knowledge yet often fail to apply it because distraction prevents sustained rational engagement, contributing to cyclical economic crises and resurgent populism despite available lessons from history.
Read at Psychology Today
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