Marketers analyze large amounts of data to find subtle correlations between consumer preferences and attributes. For example, they may find that certain brands of salsa are preferred by "cat people" versus "dog people." However, these correlations do not necessarily imply causation. Our brains evolved to quickly assume causation as an efficiency, but this can lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary worries in modern life. With awareness, people can reprogram their thinking to avoid wrongly inferring meaning from random events.

2. There's all kinds of weird things that
marketers know about human nature.

3. Especially the kind of marketers who
do research on grocery store
placement.

4. They have TONS of data, and they are
constantly sorting through the data to
find relationships.

5. For example, there's a kind of salsa
that is preferred by people who have
cats, or are "cat people."

6. There's a competing brand of salsa
preferred by "dog people."

7. The job of the marketer is to find these
relationships, and then somehow
leverage them.

8. They show this to the various salsa
companies, who know where to put
the ads for the most effect.

9. Now, it's easy to misunderstand these
"relationships."

10. It's not like if you start eating one
particular salsa, you'll morph into a cat
person.

11. Kind of like those goofy "relationships"
they are finding in the news.

12. People who drink diet soda, for
example, have a higher risk of certain
obesity related diseases.

13. But the news media make it sound as
if you will drop dead of you drink diet
soda.

14. They KNOW that most people
misunderstand, or don't know, the
difference between "linked" or
"correlated" and "cause and effect."

15. Correlation, as they say, does NOT
mean causation.

16. In fact, it RARELY does.

17. But our monkey brains tend to have a
hard time with this.

18. Evolutionary biologists suspect
assuming causation where none exist
was to cut down on thinking time.

19. Instead of our ancient ancestors
having to do a regression analysis
every time they saw a tiger, or an
apple tree, they just used the cause
effect generator in their brains to
assume what they saw MEANT
something.

20. And the more "good" or the more
"bad" that something was, the
stronger the cause-effect linkage was.

21. Of course, today, that gets in the way
of a happy life.

22. You apply for the job, don't get it, and
assume it MEANS you're going to end
up homeless.

23. You talk to that cute guy or girl and
they reject you, and you assume it
MEANS you're going to be lonely.

24. You try and fail at your business and it
MEANS you are going to be working
minimum wage your whole life.

25. The truth is that anything can MEAN
anything.

26. Especially when you are talking about
the massively shifting variables that
are always present in human
relationships.

27. Of course, if you rely on your brain's
"go-to" meanings, they'll be pretty
scary.

28. Because your brain's "go-to" meanings
are necessarily survival based.

29. But your daily interactions are not.

30. Luckily, you can RE-PROGRAM your
automatic cause-effect generator.

31. So those events can MEAN whatever
you want them to mean.

32. That means everywhere you go, you'll
find PROOF that you are getting more
of what you want.

33. mindpersuasion.com/emotional-freedom/