We all know how hard it is to change one's mind on anything. But, why is that?
Turns out to be something built in from our evolutionary past.
Fitting in with the group.
The New Yorker magazine ran a wonderful classic article on the subject I thought you'd enjoy reading.
"In early 2017, The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert investigated why most of us, as a species, are so hard to budge. Education frequently doesn’t help; in some cases, sharing facts that contradict people’s opinions only makes them cling to their viewpoints more forcefully. Across an array of studies, scientists link this behavior to quirks in our evolution—a process that hasn’t caught up, some argue, to a world of complex politics and sophisticated vaccines. We aren’t totally immovable; an experiment involving zippers and toilets, of all things, offers some hope about the potential to break through. But as Americans near the end of another deeply polarized campaign, our plight can be traced partly to a paradox of our nature. “Presented with someone else’s argument, we’re quite adept at spotting the weaknesses,” Kolbert writes. “Almost invariably, the positions we’re blind about are our own.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds
