And according to Andy Clark, philosopher and cognitive scientist at the University of Edinburgh:
Our primary contact with the world…is via our expectations about what we are about to see or experience.
You may have an entirely positive take on expectations, but I’ve repeatedly come across advice to do away with them because they are either “self-defeating” or nothing but a prelude to disappointment. (Alexander Pope, Shakespeare, and Sylvia Plath are just a few who have linked expectations with disappointment.) The advice to eliminate them is based on a belief that expectations are consciously created, which gives us control over them.
It’s worth remembering, however, that our experience of what’s going on in our minds and in the world is not the same as what is actually going on in our minds or in the world. Until fairly recently, the commonly held belief was that the brain merely reacted to sensations it picked up, primarily from the outside world. It was thought that many of the brain’s neurons were dormant most of the time until they were stimulated by a sight or a sound.
BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Neurons are constantly firing, interacting, and stimulating each other at various rates. Your felt experience may be that something happens and you react to it, but the reality is that your brain is not reactive but predictive. It is always doing its best to anticipate what’s going to happen next, as if it were playing a never-ending game of chess, continuously anticipating and preparing you for your next move.
The fact that you are not ongoingly surprised means your brain is pretty good at making predictions. In order to be that good, it has to be able to interpret what is happening now, which is where your mindset comes in. It gives your brain a context for the situation you’re in or the event that’s unfolding. Your brain constructs your experience of events and your reactions or responses to them to make them seem—and feel—immediate and straightforward.
Your brain is trying to put together thoughts, feelings, and perceptions so they arrive as needed, not a second afterward. —Lisa Feldman Barrett, Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University
You’re only aware of what your brain thinks you need to know, when you need to know it. Furthermore, according to an article by a trio of neuroscientists published in Frontiers in Psychology:
Your brain generates multiple possible representations of what to expect in the environment. The representation with the smallest prediction error is selected.
Generating expectations isn’t something you are doing; it’s something your brain is doing. Not only can you not stop it from generating expectations, but that would be self-defeating. What you can do is become more aware of what those expectations are, check how closely they match reality, and evaluate how well they work for you in creating a satisfying and meaningful life.
Different mindsets generate different expectations. Changing your mindset can change your expectations, which can change both your behavior and your outcomes.
If you’re in the area, join us at the next Monthly Meeting of the Mind (& Brain) to learn how to mind your mindsets.