MarsColony_in10years comments on Don't Believe You'll Self-Deceive - Less Wrong
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I'd phrase this differently. It's pretty clear from general evidence, not just from the examples provided, that people readily can believe contradictory things simultaneously. It's even commonly recognized, so much so that we have a well known word for it: cognitive dissonance. Psychologists use the term to denote the unpleasant feeling we get when we have two or more conflicting beliefs, ideas, or values. The human mind is incredibly plastic, and is constantly changing as we acquire new information. Given how complex the mind is, it's not terribly surprising that updating one belief may not cause a related belief to update if the mind doesn't realize the two are related. But when we eventually realize that there is a contradiction, surely there is a process for correcting it, rather than the weaker belief simply instantly disappearing. In order to infer a little about what that process might look like, we can look at how people reduce and resolve easier to observe types of cognitive dissonance, such as the case where someone's desires are in conflict. Wikipedia provides this example:
What might we get if we tried to generalize this to cases where beliefs are in conflict, rather than desires? Here's my guess:
Change behavior or cognition ("My belief X is wrong.")
Justify behavior or cognition by changing the conflicting cognition ("Well, X2 can still be true even if X1 isn't.")
Justify behavior or cognition by adding new cognitions ("X may conflict with Y, but Z can fix the issue." or "If Z is true or the mind/world works like Z, then the apparent conflict between X and Y is explained away!")
Ignore or deny any information that conflicts with existing beliefs ("Everyone has the right to their own opinion. Right or wrong, I prefer to believe X", "My belief X doesn't ACTUALLY conflict with Y", "You just can't compare X and Y", or "You can't apply logic to X".)
I wonder if all that is needed to make it easier to choose option 1 is for options 2-4 to become stigmatized. Aka, if every time I am naturally inclined to choose option 4 I am reminded of all discussion on LessWrong about trying not to be an option 4 person, and I naturally identify with the option 1 crowd and want to be more like the option1-ers I admire, then will my gut impulse be more likely to be option 1? Or is changing one's mind destined to always be a struggle of intellect vs impulse?