Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds

Economist J.K. Galbraith once wrote: “Faced with a choice between changing an opinion and proving that it is unnecessary, most people focus on proving.

Leo Tolstoy was even bolder: “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the dullest person if he has not yet formed an idea of them; but the simplest thing cannot be explained to the most intelligent person if he is convinced that he already knows, beyond any doubt, what is proposed to him. What is going on here?

Why doesn’t the truth change our minds? And why do people continue to believe in a false or inaccurate idea? How do such behaviors serve us?

The Logic of False Beliefs

Humans need a reasonably accurate view of the world to survive. If your model of reality is very different from the real world, you will have difficulty taking effective action every day.

However, truth and accuracy are not the only things important to the human spirit. Humans also seem to have a deep desire to belong. In the book Atomic Habits, I wrote: “Humans are animals that live in groups.

We want to fit in, connect with others, and gain the respect and approval of our peers. Such tendencies are necessary for our survival. For most of our evolutionary history, our ancestors lived in tribes. Being separated from the tribe – or worse, being kicked out – was a death sentence.

Understanding the truth of a situation is important, but remaining part of the tribe is equally important. Although these two desires usually work well together, they sometimes conflict. In many cases, social connections are actually more useful to your daily life than understanding the truth of a particular event or idea.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker put it this way: "People are accepted or condemned based on their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to cultivate beliefs that give people trusting the most allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than maintaining beliefs over those beliefs that are most likely to be true.

We don’t always believe things because they are true. Sometimes we believe things because they make us look good in the eyes of the people we care about.

I think Kevin Simler put it best when he wrote: “If a brain predicts that it will be rewarded for adopting a particular belief, it is perfectly happy to do so and does not care much about the belief.

Where does that news come from? or not. better results through better decisions), social (better treatment from coworkers), or a combination of both. False beliefs can be socially useful even if they are not practically useful.

For lack of a better term, we might call this approach “factually wrong, but socially accurate.” When given a choice between two people, people often choose friends and family over the truth.

This idea not only explains why we might stay quiet at a dinner party or look away when our parents say something offensive, but it also reveals a better way to change other people’s minds.

Facts Don’t Change Our Minds. Friendship Does.

Convincing someone to change their mind is essentially the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they risk losing social connections.

You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you delete their community too. You have to give them a place to go. No one wants their worldview to be destroyed if the result is loneliness. The way to change people’s minds is to become friends with them, bring them into your tribe, and bring them into your circle.

They can now change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned by society. British philosopher Alain de Botton suggests simply sharing a meal with those who disagree with us:

“Sitting at a table with a group of strangers has the strange and incomparable benefit of making it a little harder to hate them with impunity. Ethnic prejudices and conflicts breed abstraction.

Yet the intimacy required at a meal—simultaneously clearing a plate, laying out a napkin, even asking a stranger to pass us salt—breaks down our ability to cling to the belief that strangers wearing Unusual clothes and speaking in a special accent are worthy.

being sent home or being assaulted. For all the large-scale political solutions that have been proposed to resolve ethnic conflict, there are few more effective ways to promote tolerance among suspicious neighbors than to force them to eat food. dinner together.”

Perhaps it is not the differences but the distance that creates tribalism and hostility. As closeness increases, so does understanding.

I remember Abraham Lincoln’s quote: “I don’t like that man. I have to get to know him better.”

The truth does not change our minds. Friendship yes.

The Spectrum of Beliefs

Many years ago, Ben Casnocha mentioned an idea to me that I haven’t been able to shake: the people most likely to change our minds are those with whom we agree on 98% of things. problem. If someone you know, like, and trust believes in a radical idea, you will be more likely to give it value, weight, or consideration. You already agree with them in most areas of life. Maybe you should change your mind about this too.

But if someone very different from you comes up with the same radical idea, it’s easy to write them off as a weirdo. One way to visualize this difference is to map beliefs onto a spectrum. If you divide this spectrum into 10 units and find yourself at position 7, it makes no sense to try to convince someone at position 1.

The distance is too big. When you are in position 7, it is best to spend time connecting with people in positions 6 and 8, gradually drawing them towards you. The fiercest arguments often happen between people on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the most learning happens between people who are close. The closer you are to someone, the more likely it is that a belief or two you don’t share will echo into your mind and shape your thinking.

The farther away an idea is from your current position, the more likely you are to reject it outright. When it comes to changing mindsets, it is very difficult to switch from one side to the other. You can’t go down the spectrum. You have to slide down. Any idea that is sufficiently different from your current worldview will seem threatening to you.

And the best place to think of a threatening idea is in a non-threatening environment. Therefore, books are often a better way to transform beliefs than dialogue or debate. During the conversation, people should carefully consider their status and appearance. They want to save face and avoid looking stupid.

When faced with a series of uncomfortable truths, the tendency is often to assert their current position rather than publicly admit they are wrong. Books resolve this tension.

With a book, the conversation takes place in someone’s head and there is no risk of being judged by others. It’s easier to open up when you don’t feel defensive. The arguments amount to a frontal attack on a person’s identity. Reading a book is like planting the seed of an idea in one’s brain and letting it grow on its own terms.

There is enough struggle in someone’s mind when overcoming a pre-existing belief. They also don’t need to fight you.