TOW #11 A List Of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists

      The brain is a complicated part of the body, and I have a feeling that we the human race will never get a complete grasp as to how our minds really work. Maria Konnikova’s wrote an article for the New Yorker that was all about why our brains love lists, with the appropriate title A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love List. The purpose of the article is to educate the audience about an elementary theory in psychology in order to further the understanding of the brain. Konnikova wrote this article for the people who had minimal if any knowledge about how the brain deals with lists. It can be seen in the article where Konnikova uses a strategy that works well for her audience that also goes to prove the purpose. In the article Konnikova describes how the brain can categorize lists then puts it into simple relatable terms, which allows the audience to get a better understanding as to what she is trying to proves. To be specific Konnikova writes about how the brain works better when it has bulleted lists and then relates it to a topic that nearly every person does: making a grocery shopping list. I do think that the purpose was achieved in some sense in the article. It really only works for the people who have no real knowledge of psychology. I personally am taking a semester psychology at school so some of the stuff in the article was already that I knew. The article works it is just a very elementary article. Konnikova has Ph.D in Psychology and has several specialized books about psychology so she definitely could have written at a much higher level, but she really wrote it for a specific audience. It was meant as an article that would be a quick entertaining reader where the audience could leave some little bits of fun facts about psychology.