Opinion changes about grand things like a political doctrine may be difficult precisely because the opinions themselves are inconsequential. If I mistakenly vote for the party A instead of the party B, there are no personal consequences (my vote won’t change the outcome). By contrast, if I change my mind there are at least two negative consequences:
1) My ego will be hurt (I’ll have to admit that I was wrong before)
2) My friends and colleagues will be annoyed with me (statistically, friends and colleagues are likely to vote for the same party)
Political beliefs can cluster with more consequential behaviors than voting. For example, consider the relationship between views on economic policy and the appeal of different careers (or fields of academic study). Or political views and religious behaviors. Or the subjective appeal of living in Texas vs San Francisco. Knowing humans, there probably isn’t a clear direction of cause-and-effect.
Anecdotally, I’ve changed my political views recently, and I’m surprised by the breadth of the associated cluster of beliefs (some of which are non-socially consequential) that shifted at the same time.
I suspect that the causal connection is usually from the consequential behaviors to the political beliefs. Some move to Texas or SF because of their political views, but more often people simply adopt political views that are considered mainstream among their neighbors. The same is probably true with the choice of occupation.
I would think most people change their minds on these topics but would simply lie about 1 & 2. There are several threads about religious people turning atheist using this strategy.
I think the grand thing difficulty is that a change would require a large personal commitment if they wanted to be self-consistent. The difficulty is laziness - ‘I’d have to rethink everything’ or even worse ‘I’d be evil to think that’.
Some people indeed lie about their political beliefs (I personally knew a history professor who concealed his true opinions for career reasons). Most though find it psychologically very uncomfortable.
Opinion changes about grand things like a political doctrine may be difficult precisely because the opinions themselves are inconsequential. If I mistakenly vote for the party A instead of the party B, there are no personal consequences (my vote won’t change the outcome). By contrast, if I change my mind there are at least two negative consequences:
1) My ego will be hurt (I’ll have to admit that I was wrong before)
2) My friends and colleagues will be annoyed with me (statistically, friends and colleagues are likely to vote for the same party)
Political beliefs can cluster with more consequential behaviors than voting. For example, consider the relationship between views on economic policy and the appeal of different careers (or fields of academic study). Or political views and religious behaviors. Or the subjective appeal of living in Texas vs San Francisco. Knowing humans, there probably isn’t a clear direction of cause-and-effect.
Anecdotally, I’ve changed my political views recently, and I’m surprised by the breadth of the associated cluster of beliefs (some of which are non-socially consequential) that shifted at the same time.
I suspect that the causal connection is usually from the consequential behaviors to the political beliefs. Some move to Texas or SF because of their political views, but more often people simply adopt political views that are considered mainstream among their neighbors. The same is probably true with the choice of occupation.
I would think most people change their minds on these topics but would simply lie about 1 & 2. There are several threads about religious people turning atheist using this strategy.
I think the grand thing difficulty is that a change would require a large personal commitment if they wanted to be self-consistent. The difficulty is laziness - ‘I’d have to rethink everything’ or even worse ‘I’d be evil to think that’.
Some people indeed lie about their political beliefs (I personally knew a history professor who concealed his true opinions for career reasons). Most though find it psychologically very uncomfortable.