Title: Why Many People Stubbornly Refuse to Change Their Minds | Psychology Today
Headings: Why Many People Stubbornly Refuse to Change Their Minds
Clifford N. Lazarus Ph.D.
Why Many People Stubbornly Refuse to Change Their Minds
Why many people don’t let facts get in the way of their cherished beliefs.

Content: Change their behavior or belief by integrating the conflicting information into their world view. For example, "I will no longer support our current leadership, and I will vote differently in the next election.” Justify their behavior or belief by changing the conflicting cognition. For example, "The president is doing what’s best for the country and is the victim of a political witch hunt." Justify their behavior or their beliefs by adding new cognitions. For instance, "The president is a successful businessman and must know what he’s doing—he’s just too smart for most people to understand." Ignore or deny information that conflicts with their existing beliefs. For example, "All that stuff is just ‘ fake news ,’ and you can’t trust it." The bottom line is that when there is a conflict between our attitudes and our behavior, we tend to change our attitudes to make them consistent with our behavior rather than change our behavior to make it consistent with our attitudes. Ideally, people would be rational beings who consistently adjust their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors to align them with new information that is essentially incontrovertible.