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How can they possibly think like that?
If you’ve said that this week — maybe more than once — this episode is for you. Dr. Lori sits down with one of the most uncomfortable questions of our time: why do people who watch the same events, hear the same words, and live in the same world come away with completely different versions of what is true? The answer isn’t as simple as “they’re uninformed.” Psychology tells us something much deeper — and more humbling — is going on.
We Don’t Think Our Way Into Beliefs — We Feel Our Way There
We like to believe we gather facts, weigh the evidence, and arrive at a thoughtful conclusion. But neuroscience tells a different story. Our brain is not just a thinking machine — it’s a prediction machine. It scans for patterns, looks for signs of safety or threat, and assigns meaning quickly based on what it has already learned.
What that means is that we often feel something first — threatened, relieved, vindicated, afraid — and then our thinking brain works backward to explain it. We experience the belief as if we reasoned our way into it, when often we were pulled there emotionally long before we could explain it to ourselves.
How Propaganda Actually Works
Propaganda doesn’t always arrive as a dramatic lie. More often, it works through three quieter mechanisms: repetition, emotional hooks, and selective truth. Say something often enough and the brain begins to register it as familiar — and familiar starts to feel like fact. Pair that with fear or outrage, name an enemy, and leave out the pieces that would complicate the picture, and you have a message that can feel true before anyone has examined it.
Fear is especially powerful here. It narrows our focus and makes certainty feel more appealing than complexity. Simple stories feel safer than complicated ones. And if someone is already feeling overwhelmed, invisible, or frightened, a message that says, “Here’s the problem, here’s who caused it, here’s where you belong” —that can feel like relief. And relief is very hard to argue with.
What Cognitive Dissonance Looks Like in Real Life
Cognitive dissonance is what happens when new information contradicts something we already believe — and instead of getting curious, we shut down, get defensive, or suddenly need to discredit the source. That urge to get rigid fast is the signal worth paying attention to. It’s the moment the thinking brain most needs to come back online.
Here is the link to the hand model
What You Can Actually Do
Slow the process down. Propaganda loves speed. Emotional reactivity loves speed. The thinking brain needs more time. If something instantly makes you furious, terrified, vindicated, or deeply certain — that’s the cue to pause, not double down.
Name what’s happening inside you. Am I scared? Angry? Relieved by this explanation? Do I want this to be true because it gives me someone to blame? When we can name the feeling, we are less likely to be run by it.
Ask better questions. Not just is this true — but also why does this feel so satisfying to believe? What in me is getting hooked? Is this expanding my thinking or narrowing it? Who benefits if I stay reactive?
Tolerate complexity. Propaganda thrives on simple stories and absolute villains. Real thinking can say: I need more than one source. I need context. I need to know what’s being left out.
Quotes From This Episode
“There is a difference between a belief you chose and a belief that was chosen for you.” (0:00)
“Most of the time, we do not think our way into a belief. Instead, we feel our way there first — and then we explain it to ourselves.”
“Fear narrows us. It makes certainty much more appealing.”
“False beliefs do not spread only because people are uninformed. They also spread because they can soothe something in us. They can organize our pain. They can give fear a target.”
“Just because something feels true doesn’t mean it is. Our feelings are real, but they’re not always accurate.”
“Becoming real doesn’t mean doubting everything you believe. This is about making sure that what we believe is actually ours.”
