The Power of Changing Your Mind
R esearch shows that cognitive flexibility—the changing of one’s mind—is vital in a number of areas: decision making, learning, adapting to changing circumstances, creative expression. It tends to be easiest to access in areas where there isn’t a lot of emotional investment: "I’m more likely to change my mind about skincare routines than the need for Palestinian equality." This is particularly true when it comes to what professor of law and psychology Dan Kahan terms as “identity protective cognition,” or the tendency to selectively credit or shelve ideas according to the beliefs that dominate one’s social, gender, and racial group. When we’re faced with information (or, more crucially, misinformation and propaganda) that is identity-affirming, we’re more likely to uncritically accept it. The more emotionally charged the presentation? The more irresistibly it’s accepted.
It must be stated: according to the research, I’m admittedly not the best person to be writing a piece on changing one’s mind. I am Palestinian American in this horrible moment. I will be presumed to have an agenda. My intentions might be looked upon with suspicion, and perhaps rightly so. I accept that suspicion—and will only gently ask that people extend it everywhere.
