The alarming reality is that people tend to believe what ideologically appeals to them, filtering out information that conflicts with their deeply held beliefs. This afflicts all of us to some degree and is something we need to be actively aware of if we are to have any chance of overcoming it. What feels to us like a rational position might not be anything of the sort–often, it could instead be an emotional decision dressed in the borrowed garb of rational thought, entangled with the very fabric of how we define ourselves. This makes us resistant to changing our minds, even when the available data urges it. As Jonathan Swift once observed, “reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired.”
But ultimately, clinging to irrational beliefs is detrimental to us. Whether the issue is climate change, health policy, or even politics, we need to be able to evaluate the available information critically without the distorting lens of ideology coloring our perception. While we may hold incredibly strong personal convictions, reality doesn’t care one iota for what we believe. And if we persist in choosing ideology over evidence, we endanger ourselves and others.
