Why It’s Hard to Change Our Minds

Last post I wrote about my experience teaching Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral,” and how our minds (or worldviews) change. I can’t say I like the story, and I think it’s because I don’t like the narrator. He’s racist, ableist, and pretty self-absorbed, and I don’t like him because he is an exaggerated version of all the egocentric behaviors that human beings can exhibit, including me. Looking closely at this fictional character, we can gain insights into why it’s hard for us to change our minds:

·      He relied on stereotypes and his own limited interactions to inform his opinions. He said he wasn’t crazy about having a blind man (a friend of his wife’s) in his house because of blind people he’d seen in movies, and he assumed the blind man’s dead wife was black because her name was Beulah.

·      He didn’t want to be uncomfortable or inconvenienced, and so he blamed others. He didn’t want to ride along to the train depot to pick up the blind man, so he “blamed” the blind man that he had to wait at home by himself.

·      He tried to transfer his discomfort by putting others down or trying to make them uncomfortable. He put the blind man on the spot by asking questions like, “Which side of the train did you ride on?” and he asked his wife if they could take the blind man bowling.

It’s hard for us to change our minds because we bring a litany of biases based on our life experiences, education, and personality, and we don’t realize we are biased. Since we gravitate toward information that confirms what we already think (confirmation bias), Facebook and other social media sources have little influence in expanding our worldview because we follow or read that which agrees with what we already think. That’s why reading fiction like “Cathedral” can be useful, and finding a character annoying or unpleasant may be an indication that there’s something to learn about yourself. Fiction can hold up a mirror, and if we’re brave enough to look, we can see biases and egocentric behaviors that keep our minds narrow and closed to the different and the good that exist all around us.

Photo courtesy of Kuhlens Photography