You may have noticed that some people have responded very differently to new rules on lockdown and social distancing. Some seem appalled. Others reassured. What might account for these differences?
It is easy to think that we are all reacting to the same events in the world and so should have similar responses. But that’s not how people work and not what happens in our brains. We do not have the capacity to capture all the information that is coming through our senses—what we see, hear, and feel. Instead, we pay attention to the information that is most relevant to us in our different lives and we use it to create an interpretation of what is happening in the world. In other words, we tell ourselves a story about what is happening and then react to our story. And each of us is a different author.
