Discover more from Overcoming Bias
This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
Over 14,000 subscribers
Continue reading
A friend, Ute Shaw, asks why we seem too eager to believe the first opinion we hear on a subject, and then seem too skeptical about further contrary opinions we hear. Some possibilities:
We like to appear knowledgeable by having opinions on many topics, and changing our opinion would undermine that appearance.
To show loyalty to our group, we adopt their opinions. Changing opinions would suggested changed loyalties.
To quickly assimilate cultural knowledge, humans are programmed to accept the first opinion they hear. A topic on which contrary opinions are also expressed tends to contain less cultural knowledge.
Gullible Then Skeptical
This is a form of the anchoring bias
>why we seem too eager to believe the first opinion we hear on a>subject, and then seem too skeptical about further contrary>opinions we hear
Maybe we just find it unpleasant to be wrong, or rather to admit being wrong.We might also see changing an opinion as a sign of weakness (i.e. we are less knowledgeable, impressionable, haven't got our thoughts straight, etc.)