Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds (James Clear)

Author: James Clear URL: https://jamesclear.com/why-facts-dont-change-minds One-line: Beliefs are social before they are true: changing someone’s mind means changing their tribe, so give them somewhere to go, argue with the nearby rather than the distant, and champion good ideas instead of attacking bad ones.

Key claims

• Galbraith: faced with changing one’s mind or proving there is no need to, almost everyone gets busy with the proof; Tolstoy on the man already persuaded he knows.
• Kevin Simler: a brain rewarded for a belief adopts it and doesn’t care whether the reward is pragmatic or social. Convincing someone to change their mind is convincing them to change their tribe — you have to give them somewhere to go. Kyle: “exactly the same as Missionary Work.”
• Distance, not difference, breeds tribalism; the most frequent learning comes from people who are nearby (Lincoln: “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”).
• Silence is death for any idea. Clear’s Law of Recurrence: belief is proportional to repetition, even when false — so don’t waste time explaining why bad ideas are bad; champion good ones (Tyler Cowen: “spend as little time as possible talking about how other people are wrong”).
• Most people argue to win, not to learn — Julia Galef’s soldiers vs. scouts. Kyle tagged the whole piece Compromise and Debate, and to The Righteous Mind.

Notable quotes

• Read Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds by James Clear #Compromise The Righteous Mind
  • J.K. Galbraith once wrote, “Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.” Quotes #Compromise
  • Leo Tolstoy was even bolder: “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.” Quotes #Compromise
  • I thought Kevin Simler put it well when he wrote, “If a brain anticipates that it will be rewarded for adopting a particular belief, it’s perfectly happy to do so, and doesn’t much care where the reward comes from — whether it’s pragmatic (better outcomes resulting from better decisions), social (better treatment from one’s peers), or some mix of the two.”
  • Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. You have to give them somewhere to go. Nobody wants their worldview torn apart if loneliness is the outcome.
    • Exactly the same as Missionary Work
  • Perhaps it is not difference, but distance that breeds tribalism and hostility. As proximity increases, so does understanding. I am reminded of an Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” #Empathy
  • The most heated arguments often occur between people on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the most frequent learning occurs from people who are nearby. The closer you are to someone, the more likely it becomes that the one or two beliefs you don’t share will bleed over into your own mind and shape your thinking. The further away an idea is from your current position, the more likely you are to reject it outright. #Compromise
  • There is another reason bad ideas continue to live on, which is that people continue to talk about them.
  • Silence is death for any idea. An idea that is never spoken or written down dies with the person who conceived it. Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated. They can only be believed when they are repeated.
  • Let’s call this phenomenon Clear’s Law of Recurrence: The number of people who believe an idea is directly proportional to the number of times it has been repeated during the last year—even if the idea is false.
  • Your time is better spent championing good ideas than tearing down bad ones. Don’t waste time explaining why bad ideas are bad. You are simply fanning the flame of ignorance and stupidity.
  • The best thing that can happen to a bad idea is that it is forgotten. The best thing that can happen to a good idea is that it is shared. It makes me think of Tyler Cowen’s quote, ^^“Spend as little time as possible talking about how other people are wrong.”^^
  • Most people argue to win, not to learn. As Julia Galef so aptly puts it: people often act like soldiers rather than scouts. Soldiers are on the intellectual attack, looking to defeat the people who differ from them. Victory is the operative emotion. Scouts, meanwhile, are like intellectual explorers, slowly trying to map the terrain with others. Curiosity is the driving force. #debate

How it connects

• James Clear
• Compromise
• Debate
• The Righteous Mind
• Missionary Work
• Tyler Cowen
• Leo Tolstoy
• Abraham Lincoln
• Empathy
• Quotes