How to change your mind
Sep. 23rd, 2010 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI've recently been thinking about how to change your mind. This is generally about things sufficiently factual that it's not just purely a matter of personal taste, but not sufficiently factual that you can just look up the answer and have done[1].
Things like "gay people are normal and have a right to exist" or "poly people are normal and have a right to exist" or "X political position is right" or "X programming style is typically positive" or "vegetarians should eat X".
Changing my mind about non-trivial things seems very rarely to be a sudden enlightenment. It typically seems to follow a progression something like:
1. Assume one position on the issue, often but not always simply by default
2. See some points of evidence against it by chance, and be surprised or even shocked by them
3. Be slowly exposed to convincing arguments or data against it
4. Have a long period where you don't have to take a stand on it to have it slowly sink in
5. Have some instance where it matters, or conversation about it, where you realise that your viewpoint has shifted without a deliberate decision.
Also notice that typically it's not a case of explicitly rejecting something I thought was true, more commonly I thought something like "obviously the usual case is X. Obviously there are SOME weird exceptions where Y is reasonable, but I don't think they really matter" and then realised "actually, Y is pretty much unavoidable and really matters" In some cases, Y is a whole field of academic research, or a whole subculture of society.
The point is, I think the time needed is almost always necessary. Sometimes it's hidden, if you fall into a social group where you feel obliged to fit in by reluctantly agreeing with the new side of the argument, but only slowly really internally. Sometimes not having it prevents you ever changing your mind, if constantly reiterating your position makes you unable to consider the alternatives properly.
For instance, I had a post inviting people to critique my vegetarianism. And people made a lot of good questions, some of which I slowly changed my mind about, but only over a long time.
Things like "gay people are normal and have a right to exist" or "poly people are normal and have a right to exist" or "X political position is right" or "X programming style is typically positive" or "vegetarians should eat X".
Changing my mind about non-trivial things seems very rarely to be a sudden enlightenment. It typically seems to follow a progression something like:
1. Assume one position on the issue, often but not always simply by default
2. See some points of evidence against it by chance, and be surprised or even shocked by them
3. Be slowly exposed to convincing arguments or data against it
4. Have a long period where you don't have to take a stand on it to have it slowly sink in
5. Have some instance where it matters, or conversation about it, where you realise that your viewpoint has shifted without a deliberate decision.
Also notice that typically it's not a case of explicitly rejecting something I thought was true, more commonly I thought something like "obviously the usual case is X. Obviously there are SOME weird exceptions where Y is reasonable, but I don't think they really matter" and then realised "actually, Y is pretty much unavoidable and really matters" In some cases, Y is a whole field of academic research, or a whole subculture of society.
The point is, I think the time needed is almost always necessary. Sometimes it's hidden, if you fall into a social group where you feel obliged to fit in by reluctantly agreeing with the new side of the argument, but only slowly really internally. Sometimes not having it prevents you ever changing your mind, if constantly reiterating your position makes you unable to consider the alternatives properly.
For instance, I had a post inviting people to critique my vegetarianism. And people made a lot of good questions, some of which I slowly changed my mind about, but only over a long time.