Why Is It So Hard to Convince Someone With Opposition?

Even if your answer is yes, it is useful to question ourselves once again and think about how much we can control our prejudices. Because sometimes we don’t even realize it We can be prisoners of our beliefs and therefore we must come out of our shell. not quite possible.

Alright Why is it so difficult to go beyond what we know to be true and to have opposing views? why can’t we tolerate?

When people encounter truths that simply contradict their beliefs, they are expected to adjust their views according to new evidence, but this is not the case.

Because when people face new realities, instead of doubting their beliefs, way of refusing expense. Unfortunately, this situation causes unfounded beliefs to enslave us even more and thus becomes inextricable.

For example, if we start from the current election agenda; In a study on election preferences, when people who will vote are given negative information about the candidate they support, they defended that island even more strongly is seen.

In this direction, this type of cognitive bias, in which we are quite persistent in our thoughts and beliefs, is called the backfire effect.

This effect is a kind of confirmation bias, and in its simplest form, people find information that confirms their beliefs valuable, On the other hand, it has the opposite attitude towards unconfirming information. that is.

This confirmation bias and rebound effect, which we are unconsciously attracted to, is actually quite suitable for the basic working principle of our mind. Because the views we have are interconnected rather than singular.web of beliefs“It finds a place in it.

In fact, it is the parts of this whole that reveal our worldview in the most general sense, and a person’s only belief, trying to change it without touching other beliefs almost impossible.

For this reason, when a person encounters information that contradicts his beliefs, he has a stronger desire to support his own teaching.

We all begin to build our own world over the years in order to exist in life. For this, we observe the people around us, try to understand them, and then bring them all together. The new information we learned later, be suitable for this model that we created ourselves. It is important.

But as most scientists have pointed out, our minds are not equipped to handle the modern world, and especially assessing this complex or ambiguous evidence requires huge amounts of effort and energy. Our brain, of course, prefers short cuts and especially to make decisions under pressure It saves the time needed.

For example, think of all your beliefs and teachings as a building.

If this building, which you have built with great effort, encounters any contradictory information, it is for your building. is a potential threat. You don’t want to risk it because otherwise you will have to start construction from the beginning.

Instead you start developing various techniques to protect your building, and all this thinking, confirmation bias It occurs as a result of problems encountered in reasoning.

When faced with an opposing view, we do our best to follow our own. Even though we don’t realize it, we don’t want to build a new building. We become a door wall to different thoughts.

In fact, if we can begin to understand how this effect works, we can develop our own thinking and gain a more rational perspective.

This is us, the opportunity to approach our beliefs with a more critical eye recognizes it and helps us take off the blinders and put them aside, so to speak. At this point, the first step should be not to automatically reject information when we encounter information that contradicts our thoughts.

Another advantage of this approach is is to increase our communication quality. When we begin to adopt this cognitive bias, we adopt a method of communication with the other person that will not cause a backlash effect.

It will not be enough on its own to say that the information and beliefs of the person in front of us are wrong. First, by assimilating this effect, show the other party that we are not confrontational will be healthier.

After this point, the communication we have established with people with opposing views begins to be somewhat healthier; we also teach a little more about the teachings we stand behind. goes to question and to have a more rational thought system we can start.