To the great shame of the human race, it’s not about truth or lie. It’s about what a person thinks first. Like, literally, if you don’t have an opinion on something, and then you hear about it, and the first thing you think is, “That sounds reasonable,” then that’s a big wall to overcome if that information is wrong.
And after that is even worse, because then you already have an opinion, and confirmation bias kicks in. So, everything seems to support that opinion.
And that, of course, is one reason why conservatives are so against public schools, and especially against them teaching anything verifiable like science or accurate history. A school has the chance to counter the parents’ indoctrination because the children are still young.
To add, our brains are lazy (or “efficient”) and it’s literally more work to rearrange knowledge (accommodation) than to just adjust new knowledge to fit current schemas (assimilation). It’s likely a product of evolution since wasted energy gets us killed, thus we kind of have to force it into cognitive thought to overcome it.
Apt this comes from social psych, given that discipline practically emerges from post WW2 “why would people follow Nazis?” questioning.
There’s the aspect of rearranging knowledge but also the distress that lies in dealing with difficult aspects of reality. Right now many people deny human caused climate change because if they didn’t they’d see themselves confronted with a bunch of uncomfortable changes and difficult problems.
It’s not just “oh, this thing I believed to be true is actually untrue” but also “ahhh now I have to deal with a bunch of overwhelming issues and the stress that comes with that”
That’s a big part of my theory as well. Until the social or economic consequences of the tribe rise above the concern for energy demand, neurons aren’t going rearrange or build, because that takes too much energy.
I agree. But the cool thing about it is that you can change it (on an individual level) if you pay attention. It’s just kind of hard. But I guess it is not something to expect on a broad scale, given the course of humanity
If I was smarter and younger I’d probably go into neuroscience to study this very thing, but I’m curious how much you can plant a seed of change, even if the front-facing conscious mind resists. Most people won’t admit fault or yield in conversation, but does that mean you didn’t sway them subconsciously in some way that they later come to appreciate by way of neural rewiring that happens under the hood anyway?
I don’t have a great scientific answer. But if you follow the advice from the guy in your profile picture, training your own mind and acting skillfully would on average have the best chance to inspire others to do the same
At thos point my strategy when something horrible happens is to tell people literally anything other than the fascist lie that’s gonna come out, so the fasch lie has to overcome that.
“This school shooter was a maga dude” or “incomprehensible 4chan shithead” even if there’s literally no info and we dont even know if he’s finished, so the totally unfounded also-before-we-even-know-who-did-it “was trans antifa!” line doesn’t stick.
And why “entertainment news” stations allegedly start spouting and blaming whatever is convenient for them. The first line sticks, and the correction afterwards bounces off.
My in-between is to say, “Well, statistically, they’re far more likely to be a right-wing extremist. We should explore why this ideological side exploits the mentally unwell at a far greater rate!”
Or more importantly, which option is more convenient or comfortable.
If you are raised to think minorities have it tough and you believe it, you may see hardship in your life and an initial reaction that wow, it must be really bad for the minorities.
Then someone comes along and says “actually, the government is giving your potential wealth and prosperity to undeserving lazy minorities”, and that person might find it easy to believe and blame the government and minorities for hardships.
To the great shame of the human race, it’s not about truth or lie. It’s about what a person thinks first. Like, literally, if you don’t have an opinion on something, and then you hear about it, and the first thing you think is, “That sounds reasonable,” then that’s a big wall to overcome if that information is wrong.
And after that is even worse, because then you already have an opinion, and confirmation bias kicks in. So, everything seems to support that opinion.
And that, of course, is one reason why conservatives are so against public schools, and especially against them teaching anything verifiable like science or accurate history. A school has the chance to counter the parents’ indoctrination because the children are still young.
To add, our brains are lazy (or “efficient”) and it’s literally more work to rearrange knowledge (accommodation) than to just adjust new knowledge to fit current schemas (assimilation). It’s likely a product of evolution since wasted energy gets us killed, thus we kind of have to force it into cognitive thought to overcome it.
Apt this comes from social psych, given that discipline practically emerges from post WW2 “why would people follow Nazis?” questioning.
There’s the aspect of rearranging knowledge but also the distress that lies in dealing with difficult aspects of reality. Right now many people deny human caused climate change because if they didn’t they’d see themselves confronted with a bunch of uncomfortable changes and difficult problems.
It’s not just “oh, this thing I believed to be true is actually untrue” but also “ahhh now I have to deal with a bunch of overwhelming issues and the stress that comes with that”
Personally, I would love to know how they have no trouble ignoring reality like that. I would go mad cause deep down I know better.
Yup, and that’s cognitive dissonance. Now we’ve covered an entire lecture, lol.
That’s a big part of my theory as well. Until the social or economic consequences of the tribe rise above the concern for energy demand, neurons aren’t going rearrange or build, because that takes too much energy.
I agree. But the cool thing about it is that you can change it (on an individual level) if you pay attention. It’s just kind of hard. But I guess it is not something to expect on a broad scale, given the course of humanity
If I was smarter and younger I’d probably go into neuroscience to study this very thing, but I’m curious how much you can plant a seed of change, even if the front-facing conscious mind resists. Most people won’t admit fault or yield in conversation, but does that mean you didn’t sway them subconsciously in some way that they later come to appreciate by way of neural rewiring that happens under the hood anyway?
I don’t have a great scientific answer. But if you follow the advice from the guy in your profile picture, training your own mind and acting skillfully would on average have the best chance to inspire others to do the same
At thos point my strategy when something horrible happens is to tell people literally anything other than the fascist lie that’s gonna come out, so the fasch lie has to overcome that.
“This school shooter was a maga dude” or “incomprehensible 4chan shithead” even if there’s literally no info and we dont even know if he’s finished, so the totally unfounded also-before-we-even-know-who-did-it “was trans antifa!” line doesn’t stick.
Edit: shit. Last comment on this account.
And why “entertainment news” stations allegedly start spouting and blaming whatever is convenient for them. The first line sticks, and the correction afterwards bounces off.
Horrible, but I can’t say I am against it… my approach of “let’s wait and see before making a judgement” is usually completely drowned out…
My in-between is to say, “Well, statistically, they’re far more likely to be a right-wing extremist. We should explore why this ideological side exploits the mentally unwell at a far greater rate!”
The only way to counter a firehose is bring in a even bigger firehose
Or more importantly, which option is more convenient or comfortable.
If you are raised to think minorities have it tough and you believe it, you may see hardship in your life and an initial reaction that wow, it must be really bad for the minorities.
Then someone comes along and says “actually, the government is giving your potential wealth and prosperity to undeserving lazy minorities”, and that person might find it easy to believe and blame the government and minorities for hardships.