Why do we belive what we belive?

[Nique]

You probably have heard (of) you are not so smart.

In case you haven't, 'You Are Not So Smart' is a journalist's blog which offers up a bleak, but fascinating, perspective on human psychology. Reading any of the some dozens of articles is bound to, perhaps ironically, cause a little bit of cognitive dissonance. This is probably best explained by the site's own 'About' section;

Originally Posted by youarenotsosmart.com

The Misconception: You are a rational, logical being who sees the world as it really is.

The Truth: You are as deluded as the rest of us, but that’s OK, it keeps you sane.

You Are Not So Smart is a blog devoted to self delusion and irrational thinking.

So; Why do you believe what you believe? According to this site, even the most open-minded & contemplative of us have likely succumb to a number of mental tricks that 'put the cart before the horse', so to speak.

Consider The Backfire Effect - The idea that, when your convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your attention is drawn towards ways you can argue or undermine the opposing viewpoint regardless of it's validity, and your beliefs get stronger as a result.

Have you ever noticed the peculiar tendency you have to let praise pass through you, but feel crushed by criticism? A thousand positive remarks can slip by unnoticed, but one “you suck” can linger in your head for days. One hypothesis as to why this and the backfire effect happens is that you spend much more time considering information you disagree with than you do information you accept. Information which lines up with what you already believe passes through the mind like a vapor, but when you come across something which threatens your beliefs, something which conflicts with your preconceived notions of how the world works, you seize up and take notice.

The Illusion Of Asymmetric Insight suggests that we may more readily form opinions based more on our group identity and shared behavior, rather than facts and recognition of different perspectives.

The Misconception: You celebrate diversity and respect others’ points of view.

The Truth: You are driven to create and form groups and then believe others are wrong just because they are others.

...You too can become preoccupied with defining the essence of your enemies. You too need the other side to be inferior, so you define them as such. You start to believe your persona is actually your identity, and the identity of your enemy is actually their persona. You see yourself in a game of self-deluded poker and assume you are impossible to read while everyone else has obvious tells.

These are just two of the articles that describe what might be happening in the background of our mind when we attach ourselves to particular beliefs and ideologies, among other things. I don't know if I completely believe that my worldview has been shaped strictly by such mechanical responses or if that is even the message of these articles (though perhaps I am further deluding myself in order to maintain my sanity), but these are certainly thought-provoking. It's easy to think 'well, I don't do this but other people do' when you talk about stuff like cognitive dissonance but it isn't really that simple and there seem to be a lot of subtle ways that we may 'trick' ourselves into believing something, justifying it only after the fact.

Can you identify a belief or opinion you may have adopted due to such biases or delusions? I probably couldn't even count the number of times I have fallen for more subtle variations of Fine Wine (though thankfully I have avoided the gold-plated HDMI cable variant). What about Learned Helplessness? Subjective Validation?

Even though, as we are capable of recognizing such delusions, we must have some ability to form objective opinions on important subjects, I think that it's important to take a step back and consider why we like something, why we vote a certain way, hold certain viewpoints on social issues, or why we think something sucks. It's easy to see delusion in others - What about ourselves?