<p>I got confused a bit after watching these two <strong>short</strong> videos: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBtRN0R3VV8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OunyV_HgGBc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2</a> .</p>

<p>In first one it seems author suggests that: <strong>we aren't in much control</strong> on what to pay attention to? <strong>Did I get it correctly? Or maybe I misunderstood?</strong></p>

<p>In the 2nd video, same author, seems to encourage to pay attention to things.
I find this somehow conflicting with first one.</p>

<p>Can someone help clarify this?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-10T09:19:40.493Z
Welcome to Psychology.SE. We work differently to most SE sites, where we have a strict policy that all questions should [show evidence of prior research](https://psychology.meta.stackexchange.com/q/993). Please help us to help you and [edit] your question to provide more information on what you have read on this subject, and any problems you are having understanding your research. If you found nothing, what did you Google? This helps to provide an answer which will be more helpful.
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-10T11:01:14.267Z
Watching *short videos* as you called them (#1 = 3 minutes and #2 = 1.5 minutes) is not prior research into a topic area of any science. You are bound to find something conflicting when trying to take a short piece of information into context. I suggest reading into "free will" and "unconscious decision making". No question is a stupid question but once you have some background information you can link to you can help the answerer take half an hour to answer a question with citations in their answer rather than half a day or more as they will need to find good and relevant reliable sources.
Chris Rogers
<cognitive-psychology><attention>
Paying attention: are we free to do so?
david
# Paying attention: are we free to do so?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-12-09)

I got confused a bit after watching these two **short** videos: [1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBtRN0R3VV8), [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OunyV_HgGBc) .

In first one it seems author suggests that: **we aren't in much control** on what to pay attention to? **Did I get it correctly? Or maybe I misunderstood?**

In the 2nd video, same author, seems to encourage to pay attention to things.
I find this somehow conflicting with first one.

Can someone help clarify this?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, attention

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome to Psychology.SE. We work differently to most SE sites, where we have a strict policy that all questions should [show evidence of prior research](https://psychology.meta.stackexchange.com/q/993). Please help us to help you and [edit] your question to provide more information on what you have read on this subject, and any problems you are having understanding your research. If you found nothing, what did you Google? This helps to provide an answer which will be more helpful.  
> **username_1**: Watching *short videos* as you called them (#1 = 3 minutes and #2 = 1.5 minutes) is not prior research into a topic area of any science. You are bound to find something conflicting when trying to take a short piece of information into context. I suggest reading into "free will" and "unconscious decision making". No question is a stupid question but once you have some background information you can link to you can help the answerer take half an hour to answer a question with citations in their answer rather than half a day or more as they will need to find good and relevant reliable sources.  

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## 0 answers

