I changed my mind.
For whatever reason(s) it may be, reversible decisions tend to be perceived as irreversible when the weight of admitting one is wrong is heavier than the cost of simply staying wrong. Which is funny when you think about it because we are treating being wrong as a permanent condition!
In a world where most opinions are to be held loosely, given the level of information we're all swimming in daily and how quickly that information changes, I think it's quite a contrast to observe people hold too tightly to opinions that I'm guessing to a certain extent are borrowed than developed by the individual from scratch.
Thinking about the Western perception of China is a decent example of this. For a long time, the dominant narrative was fairly one-note, which is authoritarian, closed, backwards in certain respects. And many people absorbed that and ran with it.
Then you actually start looking closer on infrastructure buildout, pace of technological development, manufacturing sophistication, etc. and the picture gets complicated. But a lot of people couldn't update because the opinion came pre-packaged and had already been filed away as settled.
Of course, I'm not immune to this too, but speaking for myself I think the opinions I hold too tightly will be dropped off like a hat if it's proven to be wrong with enough clarity and evidence. The main reason being I've experienced quite a few times already that being wrong quietly is far less painful than being wrong loudly for an extended period of time.
Also, my identity isn't wrapped around the opinion so much so that if it crumbles, I crumble, which could actually be a main culprit on why people generally dig in harder the more they're challenged, although they may privately sense the ground is shifting beneath them.
The other angle which goes the opposite direction is the crowd implicitly (sometimes, explicitly) booing/shaming an individual for changing their mind.
Like music, there's a strong sense of camaraderie with people sharing the same playlist and if you no longer want to listen to that album on repeat, then you're labeled a traitor before you've finished explaining yourself.
I know it's an exaggeration but the point draws home how crowd behaviour can spiral into a kind of groupthink enforcement to the detriment of the people inside it.
Needless to say, the crowd has a vested interest in you not changing your mind. Your position validates theirs. So when you leave, you take a little of their certainty with you.
Opinions can be their own form of social currency. You spend them to buy belonging, however it's a one way ticket as going back requires a level of public vulnerability most people aren't willing to pay.
Sunk cost, in a social context.
Human behaviour is quite a fascinating thing to observe from a slightly objective point of view. I think in this case of changing one's mind, a more revealing question you can ask someone is what would it take for you to stop believing it?
People who've actually thought for themselves can usually answer that. Anyone holding borrowed opinions on behalf of a group mostly can't, unless they've quietly already started to doubt and are just waiting for enough cover to leave without too much noise.
Changing your mind, done honestly, is one of the subtle signals that someone is actually paying attention, I think again.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
