About a year ago I had a very interesting experience. We were at the opening of our new exhibit, Bill Nye’s Climate Lab, and we had some time to kill before the event started. I was hanging out with Bill and we got onto the topic of tying shoes … as one does. I’ve been doing it daily, the same way, for about 50 years, so I felt I was in position of authority on the topic. For all those years I had started tying my shoes with the left lace over the right. This led to a sort of lopsided knot that required a double knot to ensure its staying put. Bill showed me that if I reversed the process, starting right over left, I ended up with a taut square knot that would not come undone, and did not need doubling up. So what does this have to do with anything…stick with me.
Over the next weeks I experienced a very interesting phenomenon. Each morning as I tied my shoes I had to pause, consciously remember Bill’s instructions, and shift to right over left. It felt odd and awkward in my hands, like I was doing it wrong. If I didn’t stop to think, I would quickly revert to the old way. This went on for some time…maybe months even. Then one day I realized something else…I had stopped thinking. The “new” way now felt completely natural, and if I tried the “old way”, that felt odd. Something had happened. Something pretty big actually. I had rewired my brain. So what, right? Well, I feel this points to a much bigger phenomenon that significantly effects how we come to decide to believe things. I’ll call it the “starting point”. It’s the place we are when we first receive some new piece of information. Here’s how it might go. Let’s say my “starting point” is one that places a high value on individual freedom, a skepticism of institutional authority, and one in which I am experiencing a feeling of an increasing lack of control over my own circumstances. Then, when I hear news of a new government initiative that will result in a perceived impact on my freedom, I’ll be predisposed to dislike or reject it, irrespective of any objective merit such program may have. It’s just how I “tie my shoes”. Not only that but I will, subconsciously seek out data points to confirm my position, and reject or diminish those that run counter to it. To do otherwise would feel odd, awkward. I’ll continue to confirm my position on the issue over time, which feels normal, natural and right. And by the way, I’m convinced that I’m only using objective data and proven information to do so. Experts call this “motivated reasoning”.
Now before you get too excited, as in, aha, I knew “those” people did that, run it this way. If, instead, my “starting point” is that I place a high value on community interests, believe it is our government’s duty to assist those in need, and feel there is an increasing unfairness in our society, then I may be predisposed to like and support the initiative, reinforced by the same objective data, but again irrespective of its actual merits. It all depends on how I “tie my shoes”. In other words, we all do this – all the time. We think we are being rational and ‘objective’ when in fact much of this process is simply an exercise in seeking confirmation of our world view…one that we feel is “normal” and right. I submit we all use motivated reasoning to arrive at our beliefs. It’s how we have wired our brains through repetition, reinforced by a zillion factors we’ll never truly comprehend that sets our starting point on how we ”tie our shoes”.
But as my lace tying experience showed, it does seem possible to alter that starting point. I’m guessing it’s a combination of conscious effort and repetition that might get one there. I’ll further suggest that in order to get others to align more closely with our beliefs, we’ll need to be willing to make some changes of our own. The objective data, scientific findings, research results, authoritative reports, etc, is just information. What we do with it is determined by how we tie our shoes. Most importantly, I believe we can change how we do so, if we work at it…so, what do you believe?
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