Cartoon from the Calvin & Hobbes Treasury As I’ve explained often on this blog, I believe our behaviour is completely conditioned by our biology and our culture, subject to the circumstances of the moment. An unfortunate consequence of that fact is that our beliefs and behaviours can be cynically conditioned by others for their own purposes. Or stated in simpler terms — We can be played. One of the arenas in which this conditioning plays out is in the media — not only the traditional ‘mainstream’ media and publishing houses, but now in ‘social’ media as well, and also by the millions of self-publishers of books, videos, podcasts and blogs. Everyone is a ‘publisher’ now, and they’re all vying for our limited attention. And there is no better way of getting our attention, researchers have found, than provoking outrage and righteous indignation. The evidence is that the more outrageous a claim or assertion is in the ‘media’, the more likely it is to grab and hold our attention. This is…
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