By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Concealed RepublicanConcealed Republican
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Guns
  • Politics
  • Videos
Reading: Your brain on bias: Selective hearing in the digital age
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Font ResizerAa
Concealed RepublicanConcealed Republican
  • News
  • Guns
  • Politics
  • Videos
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Guns
  • Politics
  • Videos
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Advertise
  • Advertise
© 2022 Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Concealed Republican > Blog > News > Your brain on bias: Selective hearing in the digital age
News

Your brain on bias: Selective hearing in the digital age

Jim Taft
Last updated: August 11, 2025 12:04 pm
By Jim Taft 14 Min Read
Share
Your brain on bias: Selective hearing in the digital age
SHARE

Our digital age has brought many benefits. Lately, though, I’ve noticed how it’s enabled the spread of a persistent malady.

Call it the digital-era version of “spaniel selective hearing.”

Sometimes it’s willful ignorance. Other times it’s just denial. Either way, it’s intellectual evasion wrapped in self-satisfaction.

In her book ”The Invaders,” paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman explains that modern humans and dogs have been partners for 40,000 years. Over time, we developed specific dog breeds optimized for various jobs like herding, protection, and hunting. Once firearms became common, even ordinary people could hunt waterfowl. So we developed spaniels with excellent noses, all-day energy, non-territorial instincts, and a gentle, cooperative temperament.

The latter qualities were especially important: You and I might bring our personal gundogs to the field to hunt together, so each one needed to be attuned to its human and not challenge the other for turf control. Today we see their sweet spaniel faces with big eyes and their love of people in homes and as therapy dogs.

But something changed.

Back then, spaniels were often kennel-raised and fed once a day. They depended on their humans, so they stayed alert and focused. Today’s dogs? They’re beloved pets — well-fed, spoiled, and sometimes a little too independent.

This phenomenon was dubbed “spaniel selective hearing”: the condition in which your dog “can’t hear you” because it would rather be doing something else. It’s real. And it’s made worse by how cute and cuddly these dogs are otherwise.

In today’s world of digital abundance, I’m seeing the human version of this problem — and you probably are too.

You share an article that lays out certain information and reaches a conclusion. Immediately, someone in your circle dismisses it outright, saying, “The author is a partisan,” simply because she disagrees with him.

RELATED: When the mainstream media’s left-wing bias costs them credibility

SvetaZi via iStock/Getty Images

Press further, and she will respond with three “neutral” links — maybe NPR, the New York Times, or one of those permanently anti-Trump conservatives who call themselves principled.

Then, if the facts from your original article prove difficult to refute, she might pivot. She might offer her own “analysis,” which, oddly enough, ends up reinforcing the exact same claims made by the author she just dismissed.

But don’t expect your interlocutors to admit that. Why?

Because they’re neutral. Because context doesn’t count. Because you can’t make them go there.

Sometimes it’s willful ignorance. Other times it’s just denial. Either way, it’s intellectual evasion wrapped in self-satisfaction.

Like spaniel selective hearing, this rapidly spreading malady is the product of abundance — in this case, the overabundance of digital information and opinion pieces by a plethora of people with a wide range of actual expertise and insight.

Maybe we should call it “deflective data deployment” or “convenient data fencing.” Or, better yet, “I won’t go there, and you can’t make me!” syndrome.

Whatever we call it, we need to call it out.

We need a label that diagnoses this behavior. Confronting it is the first step toward reviving healthy public discourse and breaking us out of our echo chambers.



Read the full article here

You Might Also Like

VIP Gold Chat:

The rate cliff is real — and Washington created it

N.J. Town Resolves That Excessive Permitting Fees are Unconstitutional

City employee accused of planting noose on own desk at a Pennsylvania city hall

Browns LB Devin Bush arrested, charged after altercation with girlfriend

Share This Article
Facebook X Email Print
Previous Article Trump slams DC crime surge after Hill intern murdered, vows crackdown and more top headlines Trump slams DC crime surge after Hill intern murdered, vows crackdown and more top headlines
Next Article Buttigieg Top Performing Democrat in Polling, and Has 0% Black Support Buttigieg Top Performing Democrat in Polling, and Has 0% Black Support
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

- Advertisement -
Ad image

Latest News

Driver Crashes Minivan Into Crowd at Harrisburg Festival, Child Critically Injured [WATCH]
Driver Crashes Minivan Into Crowd at Harrisburg Festival, Child Critically Injured [WATCH]
Politics
Congress must kill DEI before it kills our military readiness
Congress must kill DEI before it kills our military readiness
News
Democrats must go on offense about crime, Spanberger shows the way
Democrats must go on offense about crime, Spanberger shows the way
News
Democrat influencers funded by DARK MONEY GROUP
Democrat influencers funded by DARK MONEY GROUP
News
Heavyweight boxer Joe Bugner dead at 75
Heavyweight boxer Joe Bugner dead at 75
News
Why trans ideology must be part of the gun violence debate
Why trans ideology must be part of the gun violence debate
News
© 2025 Concealed Republican. All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Press Release
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?