Your brain didn’t invent reality — it inherited it | Lisa Feldman Barrett
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Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett explains how collective belief creates the things we treat as fact, and how fast that belief can collapse.
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Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett argues much of what feels like objective reality — color, money, even the idea of a "president" — is social reality: built through collective agreement, not discovered as fact. Red isn't a property of light; it's something your brain learned, taught by everyone who ever called it red. Money works the same way, being valuable only because enough people agree, which is why that value vanished during the housing crisis in 2008.
But this power has limits. Consensus can shape a mountain, a color, or a currency — but not biology. A group can't agree that glass is food and make it true. According to Feldman Barrett: reality is flexible, but not infinitely so.
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Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
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Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett explains how collective belief creates the things we treat as fact, and how fast that belief can collapse.
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett argues much of what feels like objective reality — color, money, even the idea of a "president" — is social reality: built through collective agreement, not discovered as fact. Red isn't a property of light; it's something your brain learned, taught by everyone who ever called it red. Money works the same way, being valuable only because enough people agree, which is why that value vanished during the housing crisis in 2008.
But this power has limits. Consensus can shape a mountain, a color, or a currency — but not biology. A group can't agree that glass is food and make it true. According to Feldman Barrett: reality is flexible, but not infinitely so.
Read more from this interview ► https://bigthink.com/videos/what-makes-something-real/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
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