Why Do People Refuse To Change Their Minds?
In a 3-year study conducted by the University of Edinburgh, researchers tried to compare the effectiveness of a series of educational information to get anti-vaccination parents to change their minds.
The audience was divided into 4 groups. Group A was given leaflets that fought vaccine myths with facts. Group B was given a chart highlighting the dangers of not taking vaccine versus the minor potential side effects of taking them. Group C was given images of children suffering from various diseases like measles, mumps etc. because of not taking vaccines, along with emotional stories of their plight. Group D was the control group and given unrelated reading materials.
After completing these interventions, these groups were again surveyed a number of times over a period of weeks to test their current perception of vaccines. Shockingly, in all the first three groups, their beliefs in vaccine myths and reluctance in getting their kids vaccinated only increased over time. In fact, the stronger the intervention, the more intense their anti-vaccination sentiments became. Group C actually became more anti-vaxx than Group D, the control group.
This is just one example of a phenomenon known as the "Backfire Effect", where trying to change people's worldviews with facts and arguments can actually have the opposite effect, and make them more extreme in their original beliefs.
Such a phenomenon is extremely common, and has been observed in tons of other studies concerning a person's political or religious worldviews. Whenever someone's beliefs fall into either of these categories, it is near impossible to get them to change. (Anti-vaxxers treat the issue as political because they believe governments and big pharma collude to sell apparently dangerous vaccines for profit)
Why is this the case, though? If evolutionary history is any indication, it is because people want to belong to groups. It is inherent in us to try and make ourselves a member of a certain group. In ancient times, your chances of survival increased manifold if you belonged to a certain tribe. That instinct exists in us even today. Additionally, groups help in increasing social bonding and camaraderie amongst members who would otherwise be complete strangers to each other. Groups give people a sense of belonging, instead of feeling directionless. And few groups can be as powerful and dogmatic as religious and political groups.
And changing someone's political or religious worldviews can mean changing their group identity. Which can be too enormous a step to take for those who have honed their group allegiances passionately over the years.
And of course, there's the old "we always think we are right" syndrome. Every human believes whatever that comes out of their heads is the truth, and gets defensive whenever they are informed otherwise. People just don't like to hear that they are wrong.
Interesting, the effect does not hold true when the issue is not political/religious. For example, any smoker knows and accepts the fact that smoking is bad. And intense campaigns towards educating people on the ill-effects of smoking has already brought tangible results in many parts of the world, and this global industry is now in a decline as tobacco firms shift to alternate products.
But in any case, for political or religious worldviews, how do we get people to open up?
Two steps. Firstly, we ourselves have to get out from the mentality that we are right in everything. We have to make a genuine, conscious effort to be more open minded to ideas that contradict our own worldviews. We should also try to surround ourselves with people having different perspectives, instead of just mingling with our in-group members. This is especially important in the online world so that we don't end up living in our own bubbles that just keep reinforcing what we want to believe.
For example, I'm a capitalist but I have a good chunk of socialist advocates in my friends list on Facebook. I don't unfollow them or screen them out or anything. I've deliberately chosen to be more observant of the things they do and say so that I can learn more about their worldviews.
Secondly, if someone wants to alter another person's worldview, it is very important to do so from a place of calmness and understanding. If your strategy is to ridicule the person's beliefs, roll your eyes or make snarky remarks to his propositions, you are not going to go anywhere. The contempt and hostility will only push him more to the other side. The discussion has to be civil, and mindful of the other person's sensitiveness towards his worldviews. You should hear more than you speak. You have to refrain from turning it into a debate, or a one-up competition. Only then, may you have some possibility to at least warming up the person towards your own worldviews.
Else the people you are talking to will show behavior similar to this guy:
“The attacks against Trump have taught me something about myself,” says one Donald Trump supporter. “I have defended him and said things I really didn’t believe or support because I was put in a defensive position.”
About Me: I am a co-founder of a young food venture, Alpha Catering. My passions include digital marketing, personal development, reading, writing, and entrepreneurship. At Alpha, we are striving to change the perception of catering in Bangladesh through tech, innovation and awesome customer experiences.
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