The brain likes things in neat categories. It likes to keep things simple. It likes to know and to predict and to be right. It doesn’t like not knowing, being uncertain, out of control, or wrong. Sounds obvious, right? But actually, we don’t realize how many instances in our daily lives are impacted by the brain’s desire for certainty. So many decisions are made because of the meaning our brain assumes or the category it puts something in just so we could feel more at ease.
