Many People Stubbornly Refuse to Change Their Minds…part 252

Why do many people staunchly defend their opinions and beliefs even in the face of overwhelming evidence that their ideas and views are totally incorrect? One explanation is the common phenomenon of cognitive dissdnance.

Cognition is simply thinking and reasoning. It is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, reason, analysis of information, and experience.

Dissonance is a musical term that means a lack of harmony among musical notes, but can also mean a tension or clash that results from disharmonious or contradictory components.

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.

The discomfort is triggered by a situation in which a person’s belief clashes with new evidence introduced to that person. To reduce the psychological discomfort, the person will have to change either their mind or their behavior so that the inconsistency or contradiction is resolved, thus restoring mental balance and emotional harmony. That is, cognitive consonance.

Hence, people continually reduce their cognitive dissonance to align their beliefs with their actions, thereby maintaining psychological consistency and feeling less mental stress.

This phenomenon, helps explain why so many people will vigorously defend, excuse, justify, and keep their sacred beliefs even when confronted with irrefutable proof they are wrong.

There are several ways that people reduce their mental tension when their behavior and their available information clash. In psychology, it’s called “dissonance reduction.” Here’s an example that involves a person who is trying to lose weight and eat a healthier diet, yet is eating cookies they've learned are full of trans fats, sugar, and are high in calories. To reduce dissonance, the person can:

Change their behavior or belief so that it’s congruent with the new information. For example, “I’ll stop eating these cookies, because they’re full of unhealthy fat and sugar and won’t help me lose weight.”

Justify their behavior or belief by changing the conflicting cognition. For example, “I'm allowed to cheat on my diet every once in a while."

Justify their behavior or their belief by adding new cognitions. For instance, "I'll go to the gym more often to work off the cookies."

Ignore or deny information that conflicts with their existing beliefs. For example, “These cookies are not really that unhealthy, high in sugar or fattening."

As a currently relevant example, consider that incontrovertible proof has been discovered that Donald Trump has lied, cheated, stolen, and committed very serious crimes that most people would face significant jail time for. 

What’s more, he has implemented policies that are hurting many people who voted for him. Nevertheless, a great many people who voted for Trump vigorously defend their choice, despite the tremendous amount of credible, incriminating information about him that has come to light since November 8, 2016. Information that, had they been aware of before then, might have dissuaded some from casting their ballot the way they did.

Disclaimer: The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate. 

Thank you …Many people are unwilling to change their world view to account for new information that contradicts their cherished beliefs. Instead, they reduce dissonance by justifying their outlook rather than by changing their minds or behaviors.

when there is a clash of ideas and information, leading to a conflict between our attitudes and our behavior, we tend to change our attitudes to make them consistent with our maladaptive behavior rather than change our behavior to make it consistent with our adaptive attitudes.

Conformation bias

This is the tendency to interpret new information as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or ideas.

In essence, this involves filtering out evidence that would contradict pre-existing beliefs and focusing instead only on things that would seem to support the established ideas.

For example, if a person with low self-esteem doesn’t receive a response to a text in a timely fashion, they would be prone to interpret it as confirmation that they are not valued by the text’s recipient—even though a much more likely explanation is the recipient was indisposed and couldn’t reply promptly.

Most concerning is the fact that this psychological phenomenon is at the root of most stereotyping, bigotry, and racism.

Want to add word or two?

Pathological Narcissism

This is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, a constant need for admiration, an utter lack of empathy, and a deceitful tendency to manipulate others for one’s personal gain.

In addition, pathological narcissists have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism.

They always have to be right, proclaim they know more than they actually do, never take any responsibility for their wrongful acts, and always blame others for their mistakes.

Your comment ….? 

Groupthink

The desire for conformity or harmony within a group can result in people failing to think critically or independently and consequently make dysfunctional decisions. This "agree at all costs" attitude creates a sense of cohesiveness in a group but often leads group members to exercise poor judgment.

 Examples of groupthink are peer pressure, acting in a "go-along-to-get-along" manner, fear of "rocking the boat" and being a "yes person." 

Pride and Ego

Not to be confused with pathological narcissism, simple pride and ego can compel people to stand their ground even when they are clearly wrong.

 Whether people see being wrong as a sign of weakness, or their stubbornness is due to compensation for a massive inferiority complex, this is a very common, often self-defeating, human tendency.

And, indeed, I spend a fair amount of time during therapy with people trying to encourage them to pick happiness over pride and ego. Because in most instances, I believe, it is better to be happy than right.

The above explanations for intransigence have all involved a basic refusal to acknowledge or accept the facts. But when people are ignorant of the facts or have a very limited understanding of them, they can dig in simply because they just don’t know any better.