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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3853543" data-attributes="member: 4937">I think people really really need to understand that that is absolutely fundamental to the way humans work.  We all do it, and none of us are immune.  The best you can do is continually remain vigilant and try to remain aware of why you really believe something, but everyone basically believes everything for exactly that reason.A typical situation works like this.a) You've never heard anything about X.b) Someone says something about X in an authoritative manner.  Not wanting to appear ignorant, you agree with what they say so long as it doesn't violate anything else you've already come to believe because the alternative - potentially saying or acting in a way that will be percieved as ignorant - is embarassing.c) Having come to held this opinion, you defend it.  The longer you defend it, the more strongly you are motivated to believe it because the alternative is that you've been wrong all this time, and that is embarassing.  The more passionately you defend something, the stronger you will feel embarassed for doing so, so the stronger you will hold on to the belief and the more powerfully you will latch on to anything you feel justifies that belief, and the more strongly you'll reject any evidence to the contrary.d) For most people, this is the end of it.  What ever opinion they first heard on a subject will be the one that the hold on to for the rest of thier life.  For a small majority of people, something will happen to them that is the equivalent of being punched in the nose because of thier belief.  It will physically and emotionally hurt.  Then these people will reject what they formerly believed because the pain of believing it is greater than the embarassment they experience for having been 'wrong'.  After that, they become passionate haters of whatever they formerly believed because in doing so it feels to them like it 'redeems' there former wrongness.  The important thing to note is that these people are not better people for having changed thier minds.  They are still just ordinary humans.  They could literally have changed thier mind merely because they were tortured for believing it (Stockholm syndrome) or because they've changed social situations and now thier former beliefs are scoffed instead of validated. Everyone acts this way regardless of intelligence.  In fact, in my experience intelligence often enhances the problem, because it gives you the tools to rationalize just about anything.  Most of the most stubborn, hardheaded people I've met were extremely intelligent.  Most of the most openminded people I've met were fortunate enough to be stupid and know it.  The important thing to keep in mind is that just about everyone holds thier beliefs for at least as rational of reasons as you do, and that if you are to escape the above trap the key to it is empathy for why other people believe as they do.  That isn't to say that those other people are 'as right as you are', or even that they are right at all.  It's just that without that attitude, you aren't doing anything productive for yourself or them.</blockquote>

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