We should be very careful what narratives we adopt

Beliefs / stories / narratives are our way of representing and communicating predictions for non-visual information. A belief describes the output distribution of our predictive model of a situation.

Our predictions also change how we interpret our sensory inputs (see Anil Seth’s TED talk). If narratives are predictions, and predictions change what we are able to see, then we should be very careful what narratives we adopt because certain ones will blind us.

This applies not only at an individual level, but also at a cultural level. Many of our cultural narratives are dangerously limiting because they are poor explanations: about the creative process, about how we learn, about how children should be treated, about what will make us happy.

Related: Beliefs are predictions of reality, Our priors change our perception, Cultures are defined by the narratives embedded in them, Narratives are true or false, and agency-inducing or agency-reducing