COH has brought up neuroplasticity a few times recently. This refers to the ability of our brains to form new pathways and reorganize old ones to make sense of new information that doesn't fit in our current conception of the world.
There are actually studies that examine this phenomenon. One that has been studied for many decades is the inverted glasses experiment. In this experiment, someone wears a pair of glasses that inverts their vision. After a while, they eventually become accustomed to it, and their brains work just as well as they did before. In their minds, they see the world as perfectly normal, not upside-down. This shift happens very suddenly, usually after a short period of profound confusion. When they remove the glasses, the world is once again confused, until their brain becomes accustomed to what had previously for their entire lives been considered normal vision.
There are two other experiments I'd like to mention. The first is the playing card experiment. If you want to try it out, watch this video before you read further (hit the full-screen to do it right):
I'll wait.
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...
If you watched it, you probably (eventually) figured out the problem. One of the cards is the wrong color. For most people, when the cards are flashing very quickly, they easily identify the anomalous card, although their identification could be either a spade or a heart. As the cards slow down, they become more and more confused, until eventually the time period is long enough that they figure out exactly what the card is. Fully 10% of people never figure it out. Their brains are simply incapable of grasping the idea of a red spade.
I tried this experiment with my mom, and she followed the same pattern. First time through, she was sure it was a spade. Second time through, she said the same, but added, "Something's wrong." Third time through, she said it was "6 of spades, no hearts, no wait. I don't know." Last time through, when the picture stays on the card, she eventually figured it out.
Another similar experiment is this reverse bicycle: a bicycle that has been engineered so that the handlebars turn the wheel in the opposite direction:
It took this man months to figure out how to ride this bicycle. More interestingly, when he did, it snapped into place very quickly, and doing so became second nature to him. Most interestingly, when he tried to ride a regular bicycle at this point, he was entirely incapable of doing so.
His son, though, learned to ride the reverse bicycle in just a couple of weeks. The brain of a child is much more plastic than the brain of an adult, and much more easily changeable.
The lesson in all this? For our purposes here, it is this: you view the world through a certain context, of which you may only be peripherally aware, if at all. You do not view the world objectively. None of us do. When you encounter an idea you disagree with, you will never be able to rationally determine if this new idea is better than your current idea, unless you consistently and purposefully expose yourself to this new idea from a new point of view. For example, if you are pro-choice, you will never understand or appreciate the pro-life stance if you define "pro-life" as "infringing the rights of women." If you are a global warming skeptic, all the science in the world won't ever change your mind if you only look at it as just excuse for the government to hinder business.
To truly and fairly examine competing viewpoints, we must force ourselves to examine those views in the same context as their proponents, because our brains are wholly incapable of doing it for us. To understand the pro-lifer, you have to shut out your concerns over women's rights, and examine why they are concerned with the rights of a fetus. To understand global warming, you have to shut out your concerns over carbon taxes and government regulation, and examine why scientists draw the conclusions they do.
You may think you already do this. You may think you are objective. The statistics, and biology, suggest you probably are not. None of us are. We must make a concerted effort to walk in the other's shoes if we want to understand their viewpoint and judge it fairly.
There are actually studies that examine this phenomenon. One that has been studied for many decades is the inverted glasses experiment. In this experiment, someone wears a pair of glasses that inverts their vision. After a while, they eventually become accustomed to it, and their brains work just as well as they did before. In their minds, they see the world as perfectly normal, not upside-down. This shift happens very suddenly, usually after a short period of profound confusion. When they remove the glasses, the world is once again confused, until their brain becomes accustomed to what had previously for their entire lives been considered normal vision.
There are two other experiments I'd like to mention. The first is the playing card experiment. If you want to try it out, watch this video before you read further (hit the full-screen to do it right):
I'll wait.
...
...
...
...
...
If you watched it, you probably (eventually) figured out the problem. One of the cards is the wrong color. For most people, when the cards are flashing very quickly, they easily identify the anomalous card, although their identification could be either a spade or a heart. As the cards slow down, they become more and more confused, until eventually the time period is long enough that they figure out exactly what the card is. Fully 10% of people never figure it out. Their brains are simply incapable of grasping the idea of a red spade.
I tried this experiment with my mom, and she followed the same pattern. First time through, she was sure it was a spade. Second time through, she said the same, but added, "Something's wrong." Third time through, she said it was "6 of spades, no hearts, no wait. I don't know." Last time through, when the picture stays on the card, she eventually figured it out.
Another similar experiment is this reverse bicycle: a bicycle that has been engineered so that the handlebars turn the wheel in the opposite direction:
It took this man months to figure out how to ride this bicycle. More interestingly, when he did, it snapped into place very quickly, and doing so became second nature to him. Most interestingly, when he tried to ride a regular bicycle at this point, he was entirely incapable of doing so.
His son, though, learned to ride the reverse bicycle in just a couple of weeks. The brain of a child is much more plastic than the brain of an adult, and much more easily changeable.
The lesson in all this? For our purposes here, it is this: you view the world through a certain context, of which you may only be peripherally aware, if at all. You do not view the world objectively. None of us do. When you encounter an idea you disagree with, you will never be able to rationally determine if this new idea is better than your current idea, unless you consistently and purposefully expose yourself to this new idea from a new point of view. For example, if you are pro-choice, you will never understand or appreciate the pro-life stance if you define "pro-life" as "infringing the rights of women." If you are a global warming skeptic, all the science in the world won't ever change your mind if you only look at it as just excuse for the government to hinder business.
To truly and fairly examine competing viewpoints, we must force ourselves to examine those views in the same context as their proponents, because our brains are wholly incapable of doing it for us. To understand the pro-lifer, you have to shut out your concerns over women's rights, and examine why they are concerned with the rights of a fetus. To understand global warming, you have to shut out your concerns over carbon taxes and government regulation, and examine why scientists draw the conclusions they do.
You may think you already do this. You may think you are objective. The statistics, and biology, suggest you probably are not. None of us are. We must make a concerted effort to walk in the other's shoes if we want to understand their viewpoint and judge it fairly.