Jun 01 2009
Minds Open in Potential Alone
Many people claim to have an “open mind.” But they fail to expose their open mind to any form of new information. In a practical sense, their open mind stays parked in the driveway. How is that mind functionally different from a closed mind?
A recent article over at ScienceDaily, Americans Choose Media Messages That Agree With Their Views, highlights this problem. Co-author of the study, Silvia Knobloch, said,
“We found that people generally chose media messages that reinforced their own preexisting views.”
It seems that not only to human beings tend to cherry-pick the data to acknowledge, but also the sources of data (if you can call them that) to consult. Both of these fall into the domain of “the confirmation bias:” perhaps the most serious impediment to corrective learning. If you don’t already know, the confirmation bias consists of recognizing and acknowledging information that confirms your belief while ignoring and neglecting information that conflicts with your beliefs.
What is an actively open mind to do? Find sources of information that show a true range of legitimate positions on topics (i.e., not the often bogus single pro-voice placed across from the single con-voice in a “debate” that in actuality is no debate). And for those really tough and important subjects, I believe it is incumbent upon the open mind to put his/her body into drive and seek out potentially disconfirming media and information. It takes effort, and it is not as enjoyable as discovering yet more evidence that you are “right,” but it is an essential practice for minds that are open in more than potential alone.
