Actually, alcohol is a solution.
Bad Jokes & Confirmation Bias
Newsletter | February 2024
Everyone knows I love a good joke… and often even a bad one.
And I used to love all the jokes about booze.
🗺️ A postcard that reads “I wish you were beer.”
🥃 Or a restaurant sandwich-board promoting “The soup of the day is whiskey.”
…very funny.
But now, I see these jokes and memes—even New Yorker cartoons—and they all just make me mad! Not because I’ve lost my sense of humor, but because I know the power of societal conditioning.
In the realm of neuroscience, experts explain that our brain is constantly seeking susan confirmation.
Noun: Confirmation Bias
“The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.”
The survival part of our brain is always scanning our surroundings to look for danger; keep us safe. (😎 Thank you, brain.)
And a key component of this process of "scanning --> evaluating --> determining threat" is reflecting on past experiences… comparing notes with ourselves… and using the power of prediction to help decide (sometimes in a split second) whether we need to fight, flight, or freeze… or whether we can call off the guards; all is well.
Our brain is a prediction supercomputer.
And if we see something that backs up an existing belief or idea—major or minor—this confirmation makes us feel "safe."
Also, sometimes we just want to be right.
…feels good to be right. 😬
Now. Back to the jokes.
I’m not trying to say that some of these aren’t rooted in humor or wit…
However. The overall impact, speaking from personal experience, is a resounding confirmation that alcohol is: Normal.
Fun. Funny. Necessary.
Fancy. Cool.
Helps with stress.
Helps with parenting.
Everyone does it.
Etc.
We are living in a culture steeped in alcohol—like a societal rum cake—and we’re all just helping each other rationalize. Topping up our glasses.
P.s. Big Alcohol is paying billions of dollars year-over-year to do the same.
💰💰💰
If you’re questioning your relationship with alcohol—trying to cut back or quit—I invite you to try an experiment:
Jot down the number of times, during any given day, that you see references to booze.
👉Ads, billboards, commercials
👉TV characters drinking wine, taking shots of whiskey
👉Other media placements
👉Friends posting jokes on social media, or drinking from coffee mugs that say “This might be wine”*
👉Or a coworker joking that an email thread is driving them to drink*
*Whoops, this was me. 🙋♀️
The promotion of booze is all around us.
Just start to open your awareness a bit—watch for it.
Let me know what you find?
To all my bas@ss rebels out there, questioning the place of alcohol in your lives—I see you.
You've got this.
💗 Jamie
👉 Related: If you missed my blog post about 'Elmo's Dark Night of the Soul' you can read that here.
👉 Register for my 6-week Course: And reset your relationship with alcohol in just 6 weeks.
