Having to Defend Your View
Publicly defending a position ties it to your ego and reputation, making it harder to change your mind later when new evidence arises. This identity-based attachment can lead to costly, even deadly, consequences.
THE IDEA
8. Having to defend your view
The more you’ve argued a position to other people, especially in public, the more it’s become linked to your ego and reputation, and the harder it is to abandon that position later.
If you’re known at work for being a proponent of growing fast instead of growing slow, or for being bearish instead of bullish on a certain project, or for being an advocate of “data-driven” policies instead of gut judgments, those positions can feel like part of your identity. Same thing if you’re the one in your group of friends who’s known for being a proponent of CrossFit, or alternative medicine, or homeschooling.
The problem is compounded if you’ve had to defend your view against unfair or aggressive criticism. Now, changing your mind feels like letting the enemy win. One woman who used to identify as child-free then decided to have children after all confessed that changing her mind had been especially hard: “Because people kept saying ‘Oh you’ll change your mind!’ and it felt so invalidating. So then it really pissed me off to prove them right.”
• • •
The problem with our tendency to turn beliefs into identities isn’t that it pits us against each other. At least, that’s not the problem I’m concerned with here. (Getting along with each other is important, too—it’s just outside the scope of this book.)
The problem with identity is that it wrecks your ability to think clearly. Identifying with a belief makes you feel like you have to be ready to defend it, which motivates you to focus your attention on collecting evidence in its favor. Identity makes you reflexively reject arguments that feel like attacks on you or the status of your group. It turns empirical questions such as “How large are the health benefits of breastfeeding?” into questions that are much more emotionally fraught and difficult to think clearly about: “Am I a good mother? Am I a good feminist? Will my friends judge me? Was ‘my side’ vindicated or humiliated?”
And when a belief is part of your identity, it becomes far harder to change your mind, even when the facts change dramatically. In the 1980s, evidence began to accumulate that HIV can be transmitted in breast milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quickly issued a recommendation that mothers with HIV should avoid breastfeeding. But breastfeeding advocates rejected the warning. Breast milk was inherently good, wholesome, and natural; it couldn’t be dangerous. Plus, they were suspicious of the motives of the CDC, with whom they had been butting heads for years. The CDC was probably under the thrall of the pro-formula lobby, they figured.
It took until 1998, and the accumulation of a mountain of additional evidence, for the leading pro-breastfeeding organizations to accept that HIV can be transmitted through breast milk, and to acknowledge that fact to new mothers in their advocacy for breastfeeding. By that time, many babies had already contracted the disease unnecessarily. Allowing beliefs to turn into identities can be literally deadly.
When to use it
When leading a team, a manager should be aware that publicly advocating for a strategy makes it harder to pivot when new data suggests a change is needed.
In political debates, watch for when a person's stance seems tied to their identity rather than the evidence, and consider how to depersonalize the discussion.
When making personal decisions (e.g., parenting style, diet), reflect on whether you are sticking with a choice because it's become part of your identity rather than because it's still the best option.
In scientific research, peer reviewers who have publicly taken a position on a hypothesis may struggle to accept contradictory results; journals should guard against this bias.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Child-free identity reversal
A woman who had identified as child-free and defended that position publicly found it especially hard to change her mind when she later decided to have children, because she felt it would validate those who had predicted she would change.
HIV and breastfeeding rejection
In the 1980s, breastfeeding advocates strongly identified with the belief that breast milk is inherently safe. When the CDC warned that HIV could be transmitted through breast milk, advocates rejected the warning for years, causing unnecessary HIV infections in infants. It took until 1998 for the leading organizations to accept the evidence.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Think of a belief you have publicly defended. How has that defense made it harder for you to consider new evidence?
What personal or professional identities do you hold that might be acting as barriers to changing your mind on important issues?
How can you separate your sense of self from the specific positions you hold, while still advocating for them?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Scout Mindset (Julia Galef)