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“Our beliefs shape our reality, but the true mark of wisdom lies not in the certainty of our convictions, but in our ability to recognize how they evolve.”
Take a moment to reflect on how your beliefs have shifted.
A strongly held opinion you had five years ago – has it changed? How?
Or a topic where you once felt absolute certainty, but now see more nuanced.
A judgment you made in the past, about someone else’s choices that you now view differently.
Now consider how widely held societal beliefs have shifted over the past 10, 20, or 100 years.
A century ago, society considered mental health issues character flaws or moral failings.
Today, society increasingly recognizes them as legitimate medical conditions deserving of treatment and empathy.
In the 1950s, the idea of women pursuing careers outside the home was often frowned upon.
70 years later, women’s professional ambitions and leadership roles are widely accepted and encouraged.
Just 50 years ago, many industrial practices that damaged the environment were accepted without question.
Today, there’s widespread recognition of environmental impact and a growing commitment to sustainability.
It wasn’t until I began actively examining and comparing my current viewpoints with past ones that I realized how dramatically my perspective had shifted.
Imagine living a life guided by conscious awareness rather than emotional drift—one where you recognize how your perspectives evolve and embrace intentional growth.
Living from this place of awareness, I experience less internal tension and psychological stress since I’ve closed the gap between my unconsciously changed beliefs and conscious understanding.
This awareness has given me deeper insight into how and why my perspectives evolve over time.
I now decide more deliberately, guided by my current beliefs instead of outdated ones.
Understanding the psychology behind belief change blindness has profoundly shaped various aspects of my life.
By examining my beliefs regularly, I track my cognitive progression and make more conscious choices about what I hold as truth and why.
For me, it’s not about achieving perfection or being definitively right in my beliefs.
Understanding how my perspectives naturally evolve, while maintaining humility about my current viewpoints, gives me a better chance of being a good husband, father, writer, and colleague.
As you read through this exploration of belief change blindness, consider taking notes about moments of recognition.
The big Idea
Improving our metacognition—or simply put, thinking about our thinking—by monitoring and examining our thoughts and understanding.
What is Belief Change Blindness
Imagine a world where individuals fail to notice changes in their own beliefs.
Their life’s characterized by an inability to recognize how their views and opinions have evolved.
An unconscious transformation of beliefs occurs so gradually that they remain unaware of how dramatically their perspectives have shifted.
This is how belief change blindness manifests.
It exposes the fragility of our conscious awareness and manifests every day in millions all over the world; myself included.
The Psychology Behind Belief Change Blindness
Why do I construct stories about myself, and why is it so difficult for me to break free from them?
I do it because I want to be the hero in my life.
My beliefs are my lifeline in turbulent waters when all seems lost
They become my anchor, providing a sense of stability and meaning even as uncertainty swirls around me.
It’s a natural human response—we cling tighter to our convictions precisely when they face the greatest challenges.
Even when confronted with contradictory evidence, belief change blindness affects us.
Several psychological factors drive this phenomenon.
I’ll focus on the key factors that I’ve struggled with and helped others overcome.
These factors combine and influence each other, creating a complex web of beliefs and thought patterns.
Cognitive Dissonance: Internal Struggles and Automatic Adjustments
Imagine you’re a health-conscious person who strongly believes in the importance of regular exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
One evening, exhausted from a stressful day at work, you find yourself binge-eating an entire box of cookies while watching TV.
The mental discomfort you feel is cognitive dissonance.
Your actions (eating unhealthily) directly contradict your beliefs (maintaining a healthy lifestyle).
To reduce this uncomfortable feeling, you either:
- Adjust your beliefs (“One night of indulgence won’t hurt” or “I deserve a treat sometimes”)
- Change your behavior (immediately go for a walk to “make up” for the cookies)
- Add new thoughts to justify the contradiction (“I’ll eat extra healthy tomorrow to balance this out,”)
When my beliefs and behaviors contradict each other—which they often do—I feel mental discomfort.
My first unconscious and automatic response is to adjust either my beliefs to match my actions, or my actions to match my beliefs, to relieve discomfort.
Pause here for a moment and consider the following question, which has helped me lose 75 pounds and keep them off for 15 years.
Am I adjusting, changing, or justifying?
For the last 10 years, I have been asking this question in all areas of my life.
I do this because cognitive dissonance plays a significant role in belief change blindness.
When I don’t consciously recognize these gradual shifts in my beliefs, this automatic process of adjusting, changing, or justifying leads to belief change blindness.
Confirmation Bias: When Evidence Serves Our Existing Beliefs
When I was younger, I believed I was an “evening person” who worked best when everyone was sleeping. Every time I had a productive evening that stretched into the night, I noted it as evidence supporting my belief.
However, I unconsciously dismissed or rationalized away the many mornings or afternoons when I was equally (or more) productive.
I continued seeking out and remembering information that confirmed my “evening person” identity while ignoring contradictory evidence.
Over time, my actual peak productivity hours shifted because of changes in my schedule, health, and lifestyle.
Confirmation bias kept me ignorant of these changes in my natural rhythms, continuing to force myself into a late night schedule that no longer served me.
This connects to belief change blindness because our tendency to seek confirming evidence while ignoring contradicting information prevents us from recognizing how our circumstances and beliefs have evolved.
Clinging to outdated perspectives that confirm our existing beliefs, while ignoring evidence that contradicts them instead of accepting our current reality, leads to poor choices.
The Illusion of Consistency: Why We Resist Seeing Our Own Changes
Consider a person who prides themselves on being “always calm and rational” in their relationships.
They maintain this self-image even while their partner experiences frequent emotional outbursts from them during disagreements.
I held onto this illusion for years. I saw myself as the “level-headed one” who never raised his voice.
It wasn’t until I started to mentally record my arguments that I had to confront the reality – my tone was harsh, my words cutting, and my behavior far from the calm, collected person I imagined myself to be.
An uncomfortable, but necessary revelation.
For the first three decades of my life, the illusion of consistency prevented me from seeing my own emotional patterns and their impact on my romantic relationships.
This illusion of consistency prevented me from recognizing genuine growth or areas needing improvement in my relationship skills, as I was maintaining a static view of myself that did not align with reality.
I often catch myself viewing myself as more consistent and unwavering in my beliefs than I am.
Every time I do this, I remind myself that my perception of consistency is an illusion that makes it difficult to recognize changes in my thinking.
The Role of Memory: How Our Minds Reconstruct the Past
After my first serious breakup, I spent years telling myself and others that “she was just too controlling.”
I remembered countless instances of her “restricting” my freedom and “dictating” my choices.
However, as I matured and gained perspective on healthy relationships, these same memories shifted.
What I once viewed as “controlling behavior” I now recognize as legitimate concerns about my lack of commitment and responsibility.
I now “remember” her gentle suggestions about saving money or spending more time together – actions that I had interpreted through a lens of resentment
Memories are not perfect recordings of past events.
Visual, auditory, and sensory inputs; past and current emotional states; knowledge and beliefs; stress hormones; sleep cycles; and social and cultural factors all shape and reshape our memories.
To put it differently, our current beliefs and understanding reconstruct memories.
Our beliefs change, often without us noticing, and so do our memories, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact moment of change and why it happened.
When unhealthy narratives fade away—like my misinterpretation of “controlling behavior”—we uncover more nuanced and truthful memories of our experiences, making room for healthier relationships to grow.
To build a better life, you need to understand and actively engage with four crucial concepts: memory reconstruction, selective memory, memory distortion, and narrative coherence.
These concepts are fundamental because they all play a vital role in belief change blindness.
- Memory Reconstruction: Memories aren’t stored like videos. Instead, the brain rebuilds them each time we recall them. Our current assumptions shape how we remember things, which makes it hard to accurately remember our past beliefs.
- Selective Memory: We remember things that match our current beliefs and ignore those that don’t
- Memory Distortion: We rewrite the script to our memories to match our current beliefs and throw out the old script in the trash.
- Narrative Coherence: Our brain creates stories from our beliefs and experiences by filling in the blanks. It adjusts our memories of past beliefs to match our current worldview.
Understanding how our minds reconstruct memories and their relationship to belief change blindness is crucial for developing greater self-awareness and recognizing how and why our perspectives evolve over time.
From Theory to Practical Implementation: Overcoming Belief Change Blindness
In today’s polarized world, it’s more important than ever to remember that beliefs are not static.
If we want to experience less anxiety and more calm in our relationships , we have to listen and ask questions to understand the other person’s perspective, where they’re coming from, and when their beliefs first took root.
By understanding the factors that contribute to belief change, we engage in more productive and respectful conversations.
Mindful Self-Reflection
Regularly practicing self-reflection helps me become more attuned to my thoughts and feelings. This helps me identify any significant changes in my beliefs.
Exposure to Diverse Perspectives
I expose myself to diverse viewpoints to challenge my assumptions and invite myself to consider alternative perspectives.
I focus on things that have practical application and the ability to change my life and those I love for the better.
Every time I encounter a new idea, concept, or mental model, I ask:
“Has this perspective the potential to change my life?”
If a theory isn’t practical and implementable, I won’t touch it.
Four Life-Changing Statements
Change is a process with several key aspects. While some are challenging, each one is important.
In my experience, acknowledging outdated or incorrect beliefs is crucial, since I naturally cling to existing beliefs and fall prey to confirmation bias in all areas of my life.
I have developed what I call the Four “I” Statements:
I will question my existing perspectives
I will actively seek and consider new information
I recognize when my current beliefs no longer serve me well
I have the courage to adjust my frame of reference when presented with new evidence
This is perhaps the most difficult challenge I face in personal growth, because it’s so comfortable to cling to outdated beliefs.
Final Thoughts
All the important decisions in life come down to one pivotal moment.
We often fail to recognize that these moments are the culmination of countless smaller choices, beliefs, and changes in perspective.
Where two worlds collide, but only one survives.
I never understood the experiences that gradually shaped my decision-making process.
Nor did I understand that beauty lies not in the moment of decision, but in the preparation for it.
Or how pain, loss, separation, and hardship were guiding me toward that pivotal moment of choice.
That is, until I started asking better questions like:
“Am I resisting acknowledging changes in my beliefs because it threatens my self-image?”
“What beliefs am I holding onto simply because changing them will be uncomfortable?”
“When was the last time I genuinely changed my mind about something important?”
“How often do I dismiss evidence that contradicts my existing beliefs?”
“What does it mean to accept that my perspective today will be as flawed as my perspective from five years ago?”
Thank you for reading!
If you found value in my observations, please share them with others.
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