When you disagree with an open-minded person, they are quick to assume that they might not understand something and to ask you to tell them where their understanding is incomplete. Would you like to offer your thoughts to the group? Open-minded people can take in the thoughts of others without losing their ability to think well—they can hold two or more conflicting concepts in their mind and go back and forth between them to assess their relative merits.
Where does one get humility? I remember when a hedge fund I was on the board of made a terrible investment decision. Further complicating things, it varies by day and challenge. Try to do better next time. Remember that this stuff takes work. Either way, this is something worth exploring. I have one more thing to add: Being open-minded does not mean that you spend an inordinate amount of time considering patently bad ideas just for the sake of open-mindedness.
There is wisdom in closed-mindedness on certain issues. The most extreme ones include religious fundamentalism, xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny.
But closed-mindedness is more pervasive than many people believe. It hides in the corners of our internal beliefs, from cultural values to interpersonal judgements. Every time we use mental models, rules of thumbs, or first-level thinking to form an opinion, we are prone to closed-mindedness.
At its core, closed-mindedness is rooted in fear: fear of being wrong, fear of the unknown, fear of change. To be open-minded means to embrace complexity, and that alone can be scary enough to push us to stay in the comfortable zone of our simple—sometimes simplistic—beliefs. So how can we go about identifying closed-mindedness in ourselves and others?
This personality trait shares many of the same qualities with open-mindedness, such as being willing to consider new experiences and ideas and engaging in self-examination.
Research suggests that people expect experts to be more dogmatic about their area of expertise. When people feel that they are more knowledgeable or skilled in an area than other people, they are less likely to be open-minded. Researchers have found that giving participants false positive or false negative feedback about their performance on a task influenced how closed-minded they were about considering an alternative political opinion. People have varying levels of comfort when dealing with uncertainty.
Too much ambiguity leaves people feeling uncomfortable and even distressed. Dogmatism is sometimes an attempt to keep things simpler and easier to understand. By rejecting alternative ideas that might challenge the status quo, people are able to minimize uncertainty and risk —or at least their perception of risk. Older research does support this idea, suggesting that people who are closed-minded are less able to tolerate cognitive inconsistencies.
Learning how to be more open-minded is possible, but it can be a bit of a challenge. In many ways, our minds are designed to view concepts as wholes. We develop an idea or a category of knowledge, which the psychologist Jean Piaget referred to as a schema. As we come across new information, we tend to want to sort it into one of our existing schemas in a mental process known as assimilation. In this instance, we have to adjust our understanding of the world in a process known as accommodation.
Essentially, we have to change how we think in order to deal with this new information. Accommodation is more difficult. Sometimes new information requires rethinking the things you thought you knew. In order to do this, you have to be able to set aside your judgments, take a serious look at the existing evidence, and admit that you were wrong.
That process can be difficult, confusing, and sometimes painful or life-changing. It takes a lot of mental effort, but you can train your brain to be more open-minded. A cognitive tendency known as the confirmation bias can be one of the biggest contributors to closed-mindedness. Overcoming this tendency, however, can be a bit tricky. The confirmation bias involves paying more attention to things that confirm our existing beliefs, while at the same time discounting evidence that challenges what we think.
Being aware of the confirmation bias is perhaps one of the best ways to combat it. As you encounter information, take a moment to consider how this bias might affect how you evaluate the information. If it seems like you are readily accepting something because it supports your existing arguments, take a moment to consider some arguments that might challenge your ideas. Learning how to evaluate sources of information and learning how to be an informed consumer of scientific stories in the news can also be helpful.
Most people like to believe in their own sense of intellectual virtue. And in many ways, it is important to be able to have trust and faith in your own choices. But it is good to remember that what might seem like being resolute and committed to certain ideals may actually be a form of closed-minded stubbornness.
It is so true, we are responsible for everything in our lives. No, there is no need to blame ourselves to death, but once we realized that we had something to do with whatever went wrong, we can fix it and never, ever, make that same mistake again. I agree we need to take personal responsibility for the outcomes in our lives because that is how we grow. Take Care. Thanks for coming to this post and sharing your thoughts. HI Sylviane!
What a Great Post and Yes I did read to the end! It just Amazes me that they are not open to see what I am up too. Thanks for the sharing. I know plenty of people just like the ones you mentioned. I think we all do. Very inspiring article. We will never learn and grow if we continue this negative attitude. And the first step to avoid it is to recognize if we do have this kind of thinking.
I USE to know a lot of close minded people but I have disassociated myself from them years ago. I know exactly what you mean though. No one else no matter how you were feeling. I was on a hangout yesterday and a question was asked, do you have a question about life.
Now let me share just a little more. If it all started when you were a baby, how can you have attracted that? Can you help me understand that one? My Valentine Gift To You.
In other words, our subconscious spirit was already there existing before we were conceived. I have a REAL life proof of this. My grandmother had friends who lost their daughter in death at age 4. Their daughter had a toy house that they kept in the attic. Few years after the death of their first daughter they had another daughter. When the second daughter reached was about 4 years old herself she asked for her toy house.
Saying that the parents freaked out is putting it lightly. Another true story from someone here in the US. A woman lost her young adult son which nickname was Fox. Few days after he died the mother saw a fox in the garden staring at her! She had never seen a fox in her garden before, much less staring at her.
For example, in my case if someone even touches my neck lightly I become totally paralyze and panicked. My mother was asleep when they took me out with the forceps, so she always assumed that maybe the umbilical cord was stuck around my neck and it left me with some psychological memory scares, but who know what it really is?
It could be something from before I was even born. Even if they are reincarnated from another being, I guess I still have a hard time understanding why! Would you say possibly those could be the lessons they needed to learn before moving on?
If you find that post, please do send it to me. Love to read what she had to share. I know lots of close-minded people and some of them are right in my life. I have to admit that I have been one myself but when I started opening myself up to changes and new ideas, it made a whole lot of a difference in my life and in the way I accept responsibility for my actions and I have to say it made my parenting different with my kids.
Being through the change, it is not easy but sometimes you have to be shocked or slapped on the face to realize that you need to change.
But once you realize how liberating it is to open up, you will never look back. I love the wonderful exercises you mentioned here. Neamat Neamat Tawadrous invites you to read.. I am so glad that you took it upon yourself to decide to open your mind. In my case, I have always been open minded by nature, but I actually joined a very close minded religion which I was very much involved with for 10 years of my life.
I guess in the end my true personality got the best of me. You always write such great articles! When I reflect back on those times, it almost felt like being in survival mode. Of course since then, my growth and perception of the world has expanded considerably.
As an example, you know I moved from one state to another. I moved from a mountain community which is completely different set of rules.
I know there is no excuse. To make a long story short, I was pulled over by a police officer a couple of days ago for going over the speed limit in a residential area. In the past I may have been angry with the officer because he pulled me over.
So I will pay the fine. I got over it…. You discussed that a part of being open minded is learning to point the finger at yourself. Thanks Sylviane for another awesome article!
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