Misbelieving
Several weeks ago, I went to a bookstore with my husband to pick up a book he wanted. He did not buy it, but I found an intriguing book: Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things by Dan Ariely (HarperCollins, New York, 2023.) While the book discusses what is going on in the world today, including all of the various conspiracy theories floating around in the news, its lessons apply to individuals in disputes with others.
Ariely defines “misbelief” as “… a distorted lens through which people begin to view the world, reason about the world, and then describe the world to others. (Id. at 15.). He also calls it a process or “… a funnel that pulls people deeper and deeper. “ (Id.) It is a perspective or psychological mindset. (Id. at 27.) At the end of the funnel are “alternative truths” (facts?) and conspiracy theories. (Id)
Four elements are needed to turn a rational person into a misbeliever: emotional, cognitive, personality, and social. (Id. at 34.) The emotional element focuses on stress, the first element needed, while the social element is the final element that turns one into a misbeliever. (Id.)
Ariely makes the point that our decisions are actually emotionally based. That is, our emotions are behind our decision-making and beliefs. (Id. at 35.) When we feel stressed, we look for ways to become unstressed, so we seek ways to manage and control it. (Id.)
Looking for a way to control our stress, we start reasoning about the situation. At this point, the cognitive element kicks in, particularly the unconscious confirmation bias in which we seek out information that confirms our beliefs and discounts all contrary information. (Id.) “[W]e construct narratives to get to the conclusion we want to get to. “ (Id.)
Then, the personality element kicks in—whether we are disposed to misbelief. Some of us are more susceptible to “embracing false narratives” than others (Id. at 36.) If the person has the propensity to agree with “alternative facts,” she will become a misbeliever.
Finally, there is the social element. The misbeliever will slowly disconnect from her community of “rational” believers since they disagree with her “new” views. She will slowly gravitate to a new community of those who share her views. This new community will feed, encourage, and support her “new” views, and she will feel safe among them. (Id. at 36-37.) She is now a misbeliever.
How does this play out in a dispute among individuals? First, the person becomes “stressed out” over the issue and seeks ways to gain control over it. As her decisions are emotional, a confirmation bias will kick and using Google or some other search engine, she will find all of the information available to support her view that the other party is up to “no good” or is a “bum” or “out to cheat her” etc. If her personality is such that she is susceptible to believing whatever she reads on the internet, then she will become a true believer of these “alternative” truths” and as a result, she will seek out an attorney who will support and encourage her beliefs by filing a lawsuit against the “bum” or the “fraudster” etc., or she will file her own lawsuit.
While this scenario may seem a bit far-fetched, consider all the vexatious lawsuits, those bordering on the frivolous, and those espousing extremely novel theories. Litigation is full of “alternative “ truths and thus of misbelievers!
… Just something to think about.
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