How Facts are Don’t Change Our Minds
Facts Don’t Change Our Minds
Economist J.K. Galbraith once wrote, “There is a choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone is engaged in proof.”
Leo Tolstoy was even more bold: “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the slowest man if he has no idea about them beforehand. But the easiest thing is the most intelligent man.” But it cannot be clarified if he is convinced that he already knows, without a doubt, what has been laid before him. “
What’s going on here Why don’t facts change our minds? And yet why would anyone believe a wrong or wrong idea? How do such attitudes serve us?
The Logic of False Beliefs
Human beings need a reasonably accurate view of the world in order to survive. If your reality model is so different from the real world, you have to struggle to take effective action every day.
However, truth and accuracy are not the only things that are important to the human mind. Human beings also have a strong desire to belong.
In atomic habits, the author wrote, “Humans are herd animals. We want to fit in, connect with others, and gain the respect and approval of our peers. Such tendencies are essential to our survival.” For most of our evolutionary history, our ancestors lived in tribes. Separation from the tribe — or worse, expulsion — was the death penalty.
It is important to understand the truth of a situation, but it is part of a tribe. Although these two desires often work well together, they sometimes get into conflicts.
In many cases, social interactions are actually more helpful in your daily life than understanding the reality of a particular fact or idea. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker put it this way, “People are accepted or condemned according to their beliefs, so one of the tasks of the brain may be to uphold the beliefs of those who believe.” Brings the most allies, defenders, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are more likely to be true. “
We don’t always believe things because they are right. Sometimes we believe things because we like them for the people we care about.
I think Kevin Smaller described it well when he wrote, “If the brain thinks it will be rewarded for adopting a particular faith, then he is happy to do so, and It doesn’t matter where the reward comes from — whether it’s practical (better decisions result in better outcomes, social (better treatment of peers) or a combination of both.
Misconceptions can be socially useful even if they are not really useful. Due to the lack of a better sentence, we can call this view “really wrong, but socially correct.” When we have to choose between the two, people often choose friends and family over facts.
This insight not only explains why we can hold our tongues at the dinner party or why we can look the other way when our parents say something offensive but also a better way to change the minds of others. Shows.
Facts Don’t Change Our Minds. Friendship Does.
Persuading someone to change their mind is actually the process of persuading them to change their tribe. If they give up their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect anyone to change their mind if you take their community with you. You have to give them somewhere to go. If loneliness is the result then nobody wants to break his worldview.
The way to change people’s minds is to befriend them, integrate them into their tribe, and bring them into their circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being socially abandoned.
The British philosopher Ellen D. Button suggests that we share food only with those who disagree with us:
“Sitting at a table with a group of strangers has the wonderful and strange advantage that it is a little difficult to hate them with exceptions. Prejudice and racial strife lead to abstraction. However, the closeness required to eat — a The instantaneous delivery of food, the washing of napkins, even asking a stranger to add salt — disrupts our ability to cling to the belief that outsiders who wear unusual clothes and in certain ways The dialects deserve to be sent home or attacked. All the large-scale political solutions proposed to get rid of the ethnic conflicts, promote tolerance among the suspected neighbors, and bring them together overnight. There are some more effective ways to force food.
It may not make a difference, but it is the distance that breeds tribalism and enmity. As the closeness grows, so does the understanding. I remember Abraham Lincoln saying, “I don’t like that man. I should know him better.”
Facts do not change our minds. friends do.
The Spectrum of Beliefs
Years ago, Ben Casinocha mentioned to me an idea I couldn’t shake: The ones who are most likely to change our minds are the ones with whom we agree on 98% of the topics.
If someone you know, like, and trust believes in a radical idea, you are more likely to consider him or her competent, weighty, or considerate. You already agree with them in most parts of life. Maybe you should change your mind about that too. But if someone presents the same radical idea that is completely different from yours, well, it’s easy to dismiss it as a crackpot.
One way to look at this difference is to map beliefs across the spectrum. If you divide this spectrum into 10 units and you find yourself in position 7, then there is no point in trying to convince anyone in position 1. The difference is huge. When you’re in position 7, your time is better spent connecting with people who are in positions 6 and 8, slowly pulling them in your direction.
The hottest arguments are often at opposite ends of the spectrum between people, but most often from learners who are close. The closer you get to someone, the more likely it is that the one or two beliefs you don’t share will flow into your mind and shape your thinking. The farther an idea is from your current position, the more likely you are to reject it outright.
When it comes to changing people’s minds, it is very difficult to jump from one side to the other. You can’t jump off the spectrum. You have to slide it down.
Any idea that is very different from your current worldview will feel dangerous. And the best place to think about threatening ideas is in a non-threatening environment. As a result, books are often a better vehicle for changing beliefs than conversations.
In conversation, people have to consider their status and appearance. They avoid looking stupid. When faced with an uncomfortable set of facts, the tendency is often to double down on one’s current position rather than admitting that one is usually wrong.
Books relieve this tension. With a book, the conversation takes place inside one’s head and without the risk of being judged by others. It’s easy to be open-minded when you’re not feeling defensive.
Arguments are like a complete frontal attack on a person’s identity. Reading a book is like slipping a seed of an idea into a person’s mind and letting it grow on its own terms. A lot of wrestling is going on in someone’s head when they are overcoming an existing belief. They don’t even have to fight you.
Why False Ideas Persist
There is another reason why bad thoughts survive, which people keep talking about.
Silence is the death of any thought. An idea that is never spoken or written dies with the person who imagined it. Thoughts can only be remembered when they are repeated. They can only be trusted if they are repeated.
I have already pointed out that people repeat ideas to indicate that they belong to the same social group. But here’s an important point most people remember:
When people complain about them, they repeat bad thoughts. Before criticizing an idea, you have to cite that idea. You repeat the ideas that you hope people will forget — but, of course, people can’t forget them because you keep talking about them. The more you repeat a bad idea, the more likely people are to believe it.
Let’s call this trend a clear law of recurrence: the number of people who are directly proportional to the number of repetitions of an idea over the past year — even if the idea is wrong.
Every time you attack a bad idea, you feed the monster you are trying to destroy. As one Twitter employee wrote, “Whenever you retweet a tweet, it helps them. It spreads their BS. The ideas you condemn.” For them, hell is silence. Give them discipline. “
A poor horse is not better than a horse at all. Don’t say those bad thoughts are bad. You are just fanning the flames of ignorance and stupidity.
The best thing that can happen to a bad idea is to forget it. The best thing that can happen to a good idea is to share it. It makes me think of Tyler Cowan’s quote, “Spend as little time as possible talking about how other people are wrong.”
Don’t be hungry for bad ideas.
The Intellectual Soldier
I know what you’re thinking. “Leo, are you serious now? I just want to let those idiots get away with it?”
Let me be clear I am not saying that it is never helpful to point out a mistake or criticize a bad idea. But you have to ask yourself, “What is the purpose?”
Why do you want to criticize bad ideas first? You want to criticize bad ideas because you think the world would be better if fewer people believed them. In other words, you think the world will get better if people change their minds on some important issues.
If the goal is to really change the mind, then I don’t believe that criticizing the other side is the best way.
Most people argue to win, not to learn. As Julia Galef puts it: People often act like soldiers, not scouts. The soldiers are on an intellectual attack, trying to defeat those who are different from them. Victory is the operative spirit. Meanwhile, the scouts are like intellectual explorers, slowly trying to map the region with others. Curiosity is a driving force.
If you want people to adhere to your beliefs, you need to act more like a scout and less like a soldier. At the heart of this approach is a question beautifully posed by Tiago Forte, “Aren’t you ready to win to continue the conversation?”
Be Kind First, Be Right Later
The brilliant Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once wrote, “Always remember that to argue, and to win, is to break the reality of the person you are arguing against. Losing your reality is painful, so please, Even if you are right. “
When we are in this moment, we can easily forget that the purpose is to connect with the other side, cooperate with them, befriend them, and integrate them into our tribe. We are so caught up in winning that we forget to connect. It’s easier said than done with energy than labeling people.
The word “kind” is derived from the word “Kin”. When you are kind to someone, it means that you are treating them like family. This, I think, is a good way to change someone’s mind. Make friends Share food Give a book as a gift.
About the Creator
Leo mendoria
A central question that drives my work is “How can we live better” To answer that question I like to write about science-based ways to solve practical problems☂
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