CHANGING YOUR MIND

Changing one's mind is interpreted so differently in varying contexts and not easily seen simply as an act of determining that you might have possibly been wrong and now see things from a another perspective. If you are discovered having changed your mind at some point while campaigning for office, you are a 'flip-flopper'. If you are about to convert to a different religion, you are hailed as finally seeing 'the light'. If you are a shopper, you can return a product fairly easily with no penalty, no big deal, no need to explain unless you choose to.

When you marry, the religious service often demands that your decision be for life. You are even expected to guarantee that your feelings will never change, yet our courts are now accepting that it is better for a couple of adults, and often even for their children, to allow people to divorce for irreconcilable differences, having accepted that people can change their minds and feelings.

There are people that are unable to make up their minds, and others who once they make up their mind, in face of all sorts of proof that they are clearly wrong, cannot change their position. We may call these people 'rigid'.

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? — John M. Keynes (In reply to accusation of inconsistency: The Economist, 1999-12-18, p.47.1) So then, what about the people who have the facts put before them in an incontestable form and still cannot change their minds? From the blog of an academic comes. "I certainly believe that the ability to change one's mind in the face of new evidence, or new interpretations of old evidence, is an important characteristic of an honest thinker."

Some people think faster than others. Especially slow are people with clinical depression. Their inability to change their mind may be less based on facts than on their inability to make a decision. I find Tim Russert's recent questioning offensive as he puts questions to people, bombastically, demanding an answer to a hypothetical question of his invention and, when the interviewees hesitate, harangues them as refusing to answer his question, accusing them often of changing their minds from a previous view ( indeed they may have shifted positions in light of new information) and reads quotes from what they may have said years ago without a total context.

Another group which 'change their mind' is that in which people feel forced into agreement whether they believe or not; those who assume they were in the wrong because they didn't agree with a higher authority, etc. Politician's have been observed as changing their minds to be in tandem with the people whose votes they are soliciting. Witness Romney's position while campaigning for Governor of Massachusetts as one who believed in a woman's right to choice and his sudden change to a pro-life position when running for the Presidency where the voter base was against abortion. Sometimes the sheep don't have the wool pulled over their eyes, Sometimes they do.

Finally, I would direct you to an article When Changing One's Mind Spurs Hardening of the Heart In it, "Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert says he has changed his mind about the benefits of changing one’s mind. In 2002, a study showed him that people are more satisfied with irrevocable decisions than with ones they can reverse. Some are able to make a decision and not look back to what they 'should' have or 'might' have done. Gamblers need to think this way to survive their losses. In all, changing your clothes or even your job may be easier than changing your mind.