We are all rational human beings.

However, I’ve been through enough therapy in my life to know that we are also a product of our environments.

Our belief system is initially influenced by our family and close friends. Next, it’s heavily influenced by social (and television) because the algorithms keep trapping us in a rage-filled echo chamber of how irrational and crazy “those people” are.

Worse, as the author David McRaney points out in his book How Minds Change, once we developed our beliefs, we assume:

“…anyone who disagrees with your conclusions probably just doesn’t have all the facts yet. If they did, they’d already be seeing the world like you do. This is why you continue to ineffectually copy and paste links from all our most trusted sources when arguing your points with those who seem misguided, crazy, uninformed, and just plain wrong. The problem is that this is exactly what the other side thinks will work on you.”

Here’s an interesting experiment to consider:

Instead of trying to convince others to change, assume the other person is just as rational as you are and get curious about how they came to their conclusions.

—CJ