ISSUE #101: Why is it so difficult for people to change their minds?
Most of the people around us don’t see the world as it is, but as their worldview makes them see it. They don’t see the world with the lens of reality, but with the lens of propaganda manufactured by the elites specifically to advance their interests. What I’m trying to say is beautifully illustrated in the picture below:
Here’s how the conversation with the person standing in the meme would look like:
YOU - “Hey, what are you protecting yourself from with an umbrella?”
HIM - “Don’t you see I’m protecting myself from rain? I don’t want to get wet.”
YOU - “But there is no rain.”
HIM - “Are you trying to say that what I’m seeing on the TV is a lie?”
YOU - “Of course, it is.”
HIM - “How do you know?”
YOU - “Because I have a pair of eyes that tell me there is no rain. Why is it so hard for you to see the reality?”
HIM - “You are the one who’s not seeing the reality. The reality is in the TV. Look at the thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.”
YOU - “But what the TV is telling contradicts the reality. You are being lied to.”
HIM - “You are lying. Don’t you hear the TV saying that “sun” is a Russian propaganda. I wonder how much you are being paid by Putin for spreading misinformation.”
YOU - “WHAT? Bro, all you have to do is remove your umbrella and look at the sky with your own eyes.”
HIM - “No, because the TV told me that that’s one of the many tactics Russian propagandists use to make you wet and succeed in their evil mission. I pity your propagandized mind.”
How do you convince such a person? You can’t, no matter how hard you may try.
Why is it so hard for people to change their minds even when their beliefs are proved to be wrong? Why are people so reluctant to even question their old beliefs? Why did it take us too long to conclude that both men and women should have equal rights? How could people fight for slavery? Why do different religions fight with each other?
All these and other similar questions can be answered by one mental phenomenon: COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.
Let’s do a small mental exercise to make it a fun:
You may have heard that houseflies live for 24 hours only. What if I tell you that this is not true? What if I tell you that houseflies live for about a month? The evidence is here and here.
If you never heard or read about this topic before, there’s a high probability that you accepted this new information with no friction at all. You didn’t need to click on the evidence link to accept this.
But your mind would have felt a little friction into accepting this new information had you previously believed that houseflies live for 24 hours. That’s cognitive dissonance.
Our mind’s tendency to protect our old beliefs even when the new information makes more sense and is far more accurate.
Although you experienced a little friction, but your face didn’t turn red in anger and you didn’t decide to write a ferocious comment under this post when I challenged your previous belief. There’s a high probability that you changed your mind and would share this new information with your friends or at a family gathering.
Now let’s do it one more time, but with a different example:
There’s zero evidence, I repeat, ZERO EVIDENCE that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th. [ Source 1 , Source 2 ]
Another one - Congo was colonized by Belgium through the teachings of Christianity. [ Source ]
If you are not a Christain and don’t have faith in Jesus, you expected this new information with zero resitance.
But if you are subscribed to Christianity and have great faith in Jesus, I can guarantee you that this information created psychological discomfort for you that’s far greater than the one about houseflies. You got furious, clicked on the links and came up with arguments to protect your beliefs about Christianity or Jesus.
WHY IS IT SO?
Why do people gnash their teeth in anger when presented with evidence counter to their beliefs about politics/media/religion, but acknowledge the new information about something as simple as houseflies with no or little pushback?
That’s because your belief about houseflies is just a belief. It’s nothing more than that. It doesn’t threaten your worldview. It’s not a part of your identity. You don’t identify yourself by saying that “I am a person who believes that houseflies live for 24 hours.” So when someone says houseflies live for about a month, you accept it with very little discomfort.
But your belief about Christianity is far more than just a belief. It’s a core belief.
Core beliefs are inflexible and incredibly sensitive to being challenged. People develop core beliefs from childhood which are further compounded by their life experiences.
If you were born in a Muslim family, it’s your core belief that Islam is the best religion in the world. If you have been taught since your childhood that capitalism is the best we can do, it’s your core belief that any other system is just a utopia that can never become a reality.
You identify yourself with whatever core beliefs you hold inside your brain.
“I am a Christian.”
“I am a Democrat.”
“I am a capitalist.”
“I am American.”
Your entire worldview is constructed around your core beliefs. Your worldview is like a house and its floor, walls, roof are not made from bricks or wood but from your core beliefs.
So when someone introduces a new block of information which doesn’t fit into the house or threatens the structure of the house, you do everything you can to protect your house from being destroyed because the death of your worldview means the death of “old you”, too. That’s what people really push back against when they get upset at someone who challenges the mainstream thinking.
They protect their worldview by labelling the opposing information as “Putin propaganda” or “Beijing propaganda” or whatever even when the evidence says otherwise. Calling someone a “Putin puppet” whose views on the US foreign policy are different from the mainstream narrative is the propagandized mind’s tactic to protect its worldview.
“Putin puppet,” “Putin talking point,” “Russiagate,” “Beijing propaganda,” “Anti-Semite,” - these are similar to the fences we build around our real world house to keep it safe.
“Are you critical of the mainstream Ukraine narrative?” You must be a Putin puppet.
“Do you have information that doesn’t align with my worldview?” It must be Beijing propaganda.
“Do you believe Israel is an aparthied state?” You must be an anti-semite.
The new information that threatens our worldview activates the same part of our brain that a physical attack from someone would do. In both cases, the attack is on our identity, and therefore, our brain goes in the fight mode to combat anyone who does anything of the two.
Humans don’t protect what’s right and reject what’s wrong, although it may seem they are, but in reality, we protect what serves our worldview and reject what threatens our worldview.
It’s not easy to NOT get angry at someone who challenges your worldview because it’s not easy to realize that everything you have been told about everything was a lie. It means seeing your old self die in front of your eyes, while the new self that the world around you doesn’t appreciate takes birth.
For the person standing in the picture, it’s infinitely more comfortable to stay subscribed to his old beliefs than to recognize that the TV has been lying to him about the rain every fucking time. Staying asleep in the matrix is preferable to awaken from the matrix and face the reality.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Nobody on the planet has the magic wand to change the mental bahviour of 8 billion people. We can’t change the way our minds operate, but we can certainly become aware of the way our minds operate so that we can identify cognitive dissonance whenever it occurs.
You will find that many of your old beliefs were protected by cognitive dissonance rather than logic. Being aware of your mental functioning, you will never discredit the new information that is critical of your worldview emotionally, but you would rather use logic and have a non-emotional discussion with yourself to see which information is closer to the reality.
That’s the only way to fully awaken from the matrix.
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