NEUROSCIENCE
People Love
the Brain for the
Wrong Reasons
Our fascination with brain-based explanations
of psychology arises from intuitive ideas
about the separation of mind and body—
ideas unsupported by science
How can a cellist play like an angel? Why am I en
grossed in my book when others struggle with
reading? And while we’re at it, can you tell me why
my child won’t stop screaming?
Now neuroscience offers the answers—or so
say the news headlines. The brains of musicians
“really do” differ from those of the rest of us. Peo
ple with dyslexia have different neural connec
tions from people without the condition. And your
screaming toddler’s tantrums originate from her
amygdala, a brain region linked to emotions. It’s all
in the brain!
Neuroscience is fascinating. But it is not just
the love of science that kindles our interest in
these stories. Few of us care for the technical de
tails of how molecules and electrical charges in
the brain give rise to our mental life. Furthermore,
invoking the brain does not always improve our
understanding. You hardly need a brain scan to tell
that your toddler is enraged. Nor is it surprising
that an amateur cellist’s brain works differently
than YoYo Ma’s does—or that the brains of typical
and dyslexic readers differ in some way. Where
else would those differences reside?
These sorts of science news stories speak to abias: As numerous experiments have demonstrat
ed, we have a blind spot for the brain. In classic
work on the “seductive allure of neuroscience,” a
team of researchers at Yale University presented
participants with a psychological phenomenon
(for instance, children learning new words), along
with two explanations. One invoked a psychologi
cal mechanism, and the other was identical ex
cept it also dropped in a mention of a brain reIris Berent is author of The Blind Storyteller:
How We Reason about Human Nature (Oxford
University Press, 2020). She is a professor of
psychology at Northeastern University.Ivan Bajic/iStock/Getty ImagesOPINION