11 Challenges to Our Closely Held Beliefs
Opinions are made to be changed—or how is truth to be got at?
—LORD BYRON
Research has found that we tend to discount evidence that contradicts our beliefs, but why are we so protective?1 Why is it so difficult to change our minds when people challenge our deeply held beliefs? What goes on inside our brains during that process? What neural mechanisms get activated when someone refutes a core idea that we hold? Jonas Kaplan, an assistant research professor of psychology at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute, ventured into the highly charged landscape of political beliefs to find out.
Kaplan led a study of forty adults that identified themselves as political liberals ...
Get The First Rule of Mastery now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
