You know full well that your emetophobia comes from deep-seated mental health issues, but part of you may still argue that you suffer from the condition due to some superstitious belief. Or maybe you have a host of other conflicting thoughts in your brain that exist at totally opposite ends of the spectrum.
Conflicting thoughts are not an anomaly, but rather the norm, according to an article in ScientificAmerican.com. It’s completely “normal” for you to have them on a variety of issues.
“There is no unified ‘self’ that generates internally consistent and seamlessly coherent beliefs devoid of conflict,” the article says. “Instead we are a collection of distinct but interacting modules often at odds with one another. The module that leads us to crave sweet and fatty foods in the short term is in conflict with the module that monitors our body image and health in the long term. The module for cooperation is in conflict with the one for competition, as are the modules for altruism and avarice or the modules for truth telling and lying.”
The article goes on to explain the same concept holds true when new scientific theories clash with earlier “more naïve” beliefs.
Other interesting points include:
When someone is starting to lose confidence in an existing belief, they may reinforce it by increasing their advocacy of the particular belief.
Moral emotions play a huge part in bending and distorting the facts to fit our moralistic beliefs (i.e. religion and politics).
This article can help us understand why we may have two conflicting trains of thought when it comes to vomit phobias – or any other beliefs, for that matter. With all these various forces swirling about in our brains, it actually may be more of a surprise when our thoughts are not in conflict with one another.
Read the full article at ScientificAmerican.com: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-minds-compartments-create-conflicting-beliefs
