A Note on Attention Bias

Here’s a disturbing trend that I have decided to label “attention bias.”

This is defined by  the desire for your opinion to be observed, and how that desire affects the intensity of your opinion.

So, if you happen to like a new record, you don’t say, “this record is really good.”  You say, “it’s the best record, ever.”

If you see a movie you want people to know you enjoyed, you say, “it’s the best movie I’ve seen in decades.”

Also, the croque monsieur sandwich at the Odeon is “the best sandwich I have ever had in my life.”

“That was the best colonic ever.”

(I said that last night).

None of this is provable, and perhaps all of it is untrue, and I am one of the worst offenders.  Perhaps, the worst offender ever.

But I am going to stop. Because I have realized that now almost everything I come across, in my lazy opinion, is either “the best” or “the worst.” It’s tiresome.

So from now on, everything is either “okay.”

or “not very good.”

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your pal, gg