FULL DISCLOSURE: we are not psychiatrists or, for that matter, doctors of any kind. But the events of the last few years have taught us as students of human nature what people think and why they think that way. The first learning experience we all have is growing up. Many of us assume the biases and beliefs of our parents and siblings. As we “mature” (to use that word loosely in some cases) we build on those biases, grow new ones and make judgements based on that next round of beliefs. As we grow we develop a certain pride in our knowledge and beliefs. Our biases color everything we see and so our conscious and subconscious minds interpret the outside world in ways we can understand and categorize events. We now live in the age of individualism–another word for “extreme arrogance”. We hold to whatever beliefs we had originally because we don’t want to ever admit that we were wrong. It is beyond comprehension that mistakes can be admitted because many people see such an admission as sign of weakness or failure. In our last post we defined “intelligence” as the ability to adjust. So, by an unwillingness to admit incorrect thinking some people are putting themselves out on a shaky limb. We think they really know their position on a given issue is wrong but choose to ignore what their brain tells them is the right choice…hence the internal conflict. The scary part of this picture is that two factors exist as land mines to a clear path. First, many of our biases are subconscious. We don’t even know we have them. And second, the outside world is constantly bombarding us with information–much of it tainted to their purposes. All this conflict makes it nearly impossible for many to not only not see the forest for the trees but not to see either the forest OR the trees. Ok, so what’s our point? The message is that–in a perfect world–everyone needs to be willing to listen to other viewpoints before making a judgement. And then, when more information appears, everyone needs to be willing to adjust their original thought if their brain tells them to make that adjustment. The old saying was never more true “reasonable people equally informed seldom differ”. So then the solution to the internal conflict is we need more reasonable people. Thanks for grinding through this exercise. Biases are like viruses and the only vaccine that kills them is a secure, open and rational mind.
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