Words Are Like Sheepdogs Herding Ideas.

An interesting article in The New York Times highlights how little of the nosie assailing the senses actually makes its way into awareness.

The magicians were as eager as the scientists when it came to discussing the cognitive illusions that masquerade as magic: disguising one action as another, implying data that isn’t there, taking advantage of how the brain fills in gaps.

“Allow people to make assumptions and they will come away absolutely convinced that assumption was correct and that it represents fact,” Mr. Randi said. “It’s not necessarily so.”

This could be seen as a reminder to marketers about the difficulty of their task, but I think it also has implications for how you view research.