There is a specific mathematical 'filter' in your brain that explains why smart people act against their own values.
We often wonder why 'good people' do things they know are wrong or hypocritical. This study uses a computational model to show that our brains have high-precision 'belief filters' that physically block our deep-seated values from influencing our actions. It’s an active inference process where your brain prioritizes immediate predictions and environmental signals over your long-term moral code. Essentially, your brain treats your values like background noise when it’s trying to navigate a complex situation. It turns out hypocrisy isn't always a lack of character; sometimes it's just the way your brain filters data.
Belief Filters as High-Precision Priors: An Active Inference Account of Value-Belief Dissociation
SSRN · 6470519
People frequently act in ways that contradict their own values-a phenomenon documented across clinical, organizational, and everyday contexts under labels including conditions of worth, cognitive schemas, introjected regulations, and cognitive fusion. Despite its ubiquity, this value-belief dissociation lacks a unified computational account. The present paper proposes the Belief Filter model, which formalizes the obstruction mechanism within the Active Inference framework. We define a belief fil