They're not particularly great reasons, to be honest. It's the old "familiarity breeds acceptance", because you literally can't be angry the whole time.
Kristin Laurin of the University of British Columbia examined people’s attitudes before plastic water bottles were prohibited in San Francisco. The ban wasn’t favoured by everyone, but was introduced nonetheless. Just one day later, her team again tested public attitudes. Already, views had changed: people were less opposed. There hadn’t been time for people to change their behaviour to adjust to the practicalities of the ban. So it seemed their mindset itself had changed. In other words, we rationalise the things we feel stuck with. It’s as though we free up brain space to get on with our lives by deciding it’s not so bad, after all. Laurin likens this to a “psychological immune system”.
Next, Laurin looked at views on Ontario’s 2015 ban on smoking in parks and restaurant patios. She found that people didn’t only change their opinions after the ban had been brought in – they changed what they remembered about their own behaviour. Before, smokers told her team that they did about 15% of their smoking in these public places. Afterwards, they estimated that only about 8% of their smoking had taken place in these areas. They had adjusted their own memories, altering their judgements to convince themselves the ban’s effect wasn’t so bad after all.
Drumpf currently has the lowest approval ratings of any US President since World War II. You might expect that this reflects that the people who didn’t vote for him dislike him even more now that he is president. But that’s not what happened. Laurin’s team found that just a couple of days after his inauguration, those same people felt more positively about him.
“It actually turned out, even with the people in our sample who said he did really badly at the inauguration and hated how he performed there, [that] their attitudes moved in a positive direction. This again suggests this isn’t something that you’re learning once this new policy or this new official comes into effect.” Instead, “your brain is scrambling to make you feel okay and allow you to get on with your life”.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180622-the-surprising-reason-people-change-their-minds
Now we have them exactly where they want us.
ReplyDeleteJoe Carter - Ha! That's funny! BTW, let me go on record saying that I disliked Trump more after inauguration than I did before. Perhaps being a high functioning autistic has something to do with it? Or is it above average IQ? Perhaps both?
ReplyDeleteAlso, let it be known that I occasionally refer to Trump as "Rump"; though I usually state it more precisely by saying that he's a narcissistic jackass.
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