Podcast Summary: "You Are Not So Smart"

Episode 333: Selective Perception - Jay Van Bavel
Date: February 16, 2026
Host: David McRaney
Guest: Dr. Jay Van Bavel, Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at NYU

Episode Overview

This episode digs deep into how our identities, group allegiances, and pre-existing beliefs fundamentally shape what we perceive—especially when the stakes are high. In light of recent, highly controversial videos depicting fatal incidents involving federal agents and protesters, host David McRaney explores with Dr. Jay Van Bavel the roots of “selective perception,” referencing the classic “They Saw a Game” study and connecting that foundational research to our polarized, algorithmically-driven modern context.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trigger: Recent Events & The Perception Gap

• Host’s Personal Reaction: McRaney shares shock at seeing people interpret the same viral protest videos in radically different ways, even when the videos seem clear-cut to him.
  [03:40]

  “I was initially shocked when I read comments and saw commentary in which people disagreed with what I thought I was seeing with my own eyes, what seemed indisputable.” — David McRaney

• Core Theme: How is it possible for groups to see the same evidence yet “live in another reality”? And what does this mean for democracy and justice systems?
  [04:30]

2. Introduction to Motivated Perception

• Perception Is Constructed: Unlike passive recording, perception is “assembled along a pipeline,” influenced by attention, identity, experience, and expectation, leading to different subjective realities even with the same stimuli.
  [04:10 & 07:00]

• Motivated Perception vs. Motivated Reasoning: Not just after-the-fact rationalization—our basic perception itself is colored by unconscious motivations, goals, and loyalties before reasoning even begins.
  [07:00-08:40]

3. The Classic Study: "They Saw a Game"

• Background: The 1951 Dartmouth vs. Princeton football game became infamous for its violence. Afterward, each school’s newspaper blamed the other for excessive aggression, reflecting radically different interpretations of the same event.
  [13:24-16:00]

• The Study: Professors Hastorf (Dartmouth) and Cantril (Princeton) had students from each school either recall or watch film of the game—both groups maintained starkly divergent accounts, even when watching the same footage.
  [16:00-17:00]

  “Having the video and watching it doesn’t solve anything. ...There is no such thing as a game ‘existing out there in its own right which people merely observe’... everything is happening in the brain and getting filtered in different ways.” — Jay Van Bavel [16:55]

4. How the Brain Creates Subjective Reality

• Neuroscience Breakdown:

  • Sensory input is heavily filtered and edited even before it reaches conscious awareness.
  • Visual attention is directed to different aspects based on group identity and expectations.
  • The brain’s interpretation process is not like a camera, but more like a highly subjective, unconscious film editor.
    [18:30-20:03]

  “By the time we’re kind of consciously aware of it, it’s almost like a video that’s been heavily edited.” — Jay Van Bavel [19:55]

5. Social Identity Directs Attention & Perception

• Attention as a Filter: What we identify with (e.g., support for police vs. suspicion) literally directs our eyes—and thus what information is processed and remembered.
  [21:11-23:38]

  “Our identification, the extent to which we care about a group or trust and respect them and feel connected to them, shapes our eye movements, which shapes the information that is sent to our brain.” — Jay Van Bavel [22:35]

• Example: In studies with police encounter videos, people’s identification influences which figures/events they pay attention to—and their judgments about responsibility.

6. Inattentional Blindness & Subjective Narratives

• Invisible Gorilla Analogy: Even obvious details (like a person in a gorilla suit) can be missed if our attention is elsewhere—so too with real-life news videos.
  [25:00]

  • Even if two people reach similar conclusions about an event, they likely base them on attention to different details, reinforcing that shared conclusions don’t mean shared perceptions.

7. The Attention Economy & Social Media

• Scale of the Problem:

  • Social media algorithms are built to capture attention—resulting in average users “doomscrolling” for years of their lives.
  • The majority of political content is created by a highly vocal, extreme minority, skewing perceived consensus and normality.
  • Most people remain silent, leaving nuanced and moderate perspectives invisible.

  “3% of people post like 90% of the content about politics. ...These are the people at the most extreme ends.” — Jay Van Bavel [29:06]

• Consequences: We’re consuming an “information diet” profoundly tilted toward the extremes, further hardening group divides and shaping what we expect and thus perceive.

8. Evolutionary & Social Roots of the Perception Gap

• Evolutionary Imperative: Our brains evolved to fit into groups—agreement and shared reality were prerequisites for survival.
  [32:31]

  “We are the ancestors of generation after generation... of people who fit in. And part of fitting in is agreeing with people, interpreting things the same way, and defending your group.” — Jay Van Bavel [33:10]

• Modern Group Pressures: In today’s segmented society, speaking against your group carries heavy social costs, reinforcing motivated interpretations.

9. Is This New? Or Ancient?

• Old Roots, New Amplifiers: While group-influenced perception is ancient, today’s polarization and algorithmic amplification dramatically intensify its impact.
  [35:19]

  “We have these evolutionarily ancient brains... then you drop them in a modern environment where there’s extreme levels... and a technological environment that is amplifying the most extreme voices.” — Jay Van Bavel [36:10]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Video Evidence and Subjectivity:

  “We think if there’s video evidence we can solve the problems... But in these cases where people are really passionate, it’s really connected to a core sense of their identity. They filter it in very different ways.” — Jay Van Bavel [06:55]

• On Selective Attention:

  “What you pay attention to is what you experience. ...That’s what creates your experiences and your memories.” — Dr. Catherine Devaney, cited by McRaney [26:57]

• On the Cost of Polarization:

  “If you were told you had 10 years to live because you had cancer, would you opt into just doom scrolling through it all? ...There’s like levels of existential crisis here, right?” — Jay Van Bavel [29:00]

• On Social/Community Pressures:

  “If you stand up and say something... and your friend group, your community, is going to see that as sacrilege, then you get socially ostracized... The motives and incentives of their environment really influence what people say they believe.” — Jay Van Bavel [33:55]

Important Timestamps

• 03:30-05:00 | Host’s context, motivation for episode
• 06:04-07:15 | Dr. Van Bavel introduces how group identity drives perception
• 13:24-17:00 | Detailed discussion of the “They Saw a Game” study
• 18:30-20:03 | How the brain filters perception
• 21:11-23:38 | How group allegiances direct visual attention
• 25:00-26:51 | Inattentional blindness and subjective narratives
• 28:04-29:41 | Social media’s attention economy and the rise of extremes
• 32:31-34:51 | Evolutionary and social explanations for motivated perception
• 35:19-37:49 | Are today’s divides new or just old patterns amplified?

Takeaways — Why This Matters

• Objective reality isn’t perceived objectively: Even when presented with the same “raw” evidence, people’s identities and allegiances shape what they notice, remember, and believe.
• Social and evolutionary dynamics drive group perceptions: Agreeing with (or at least not challenging) your group is deeply rooted in human psychology, making groupthink a powerful force.
• Social media amplifies the extremes: The most polarized voices dominate the narrative, biasing what we see and believe about the “other side.”
• Awareness is crucial: Recognizing these biases in ourselves and others is essential for building empathy, preserving democracy, and seeking a more functional, shared reality.

This episode is a perceptive, accessible look at a troubling reality of modern life: not only do we disagree on values and priorities, we often don’t even see the same facts. Dr. Jay Van Bavel’s insights reveal how ancient social psychology, neuroscience, and today’s media ecosystem intersect to create our fractured world.