You don’t have to go far to see how pervasive the conflicts surrounding elections, public health, climate, war, identity, and even basic facts have become. Look at the news apps, scroll through social media, or listen in on your family while they are having dinner. You will see the common thread throughout these topics and how they frequently spill over from governmental settings and boundary lines into personal relationships, workplaces, and homes. Increasingly, what drives these conflicts isn’t just disagreement over information, but deeper clashes in belief. The way people interpret the same headline can feel like they’re living in entirely different realities.
That’s because beliefs don’t usually feel like opinions we chose. They feel more like the background hum of daily life. They are constantly present in our lives, but we rarely reflect on how they shape our perception of the world around us. Many of us have incorporated these beliefs and values into our lives long before we can articulate why we have them or challenge them. Over time, they become entrenched in how we think about politics, health, relationships, values, and even ourselves.
Why Beliefs Feel Personal, Not Optional
This is why the question of whether beliefs can change feels so loaded right now. It isn’t abstract or academic. It’s personal. And it matters. The issue of whether beliefs can change is now very charged, with a lot of weight behind it for many people. We have lots of evidence through psychological and clinical research that beliefs can and will change. However, the way that people actually change their beliefs usually does not follow a linear or evidence-based method, as people would like it to. It is typically hard for people to change their beliefs because it requires them to undergo a change in identity.
People usually do not change their beliefs just because there is a stronger argument for the new belief. In fact, people generally do not change their beliefs based on just one argument. Change occurs through relationships, emotion, identity, and the stories they tell themselves based upon their experiences. Research on motivated reasoning shows that people tend to accept information that protects their sense of self and reject information that threatens it, even when the evidence is strong. In those moments, defending a belief is about self-protection.
Social life makes this even harder. Many beliefs are shared with the people closest to us: parents, partners, friends, political allies, and religious colleagues. Letting go of a shared belief can come at a cost: awkward silences, damaged relationships, or a quiet sense of not belonging anymore. Studies on conformity suggest that people often choose connection over correctness, primarily when beliefs act as signals of loyalty. Holding on isn’t always about ignorance. Sometimes it’s about not wanting to be alone.
One final difficulty in spreading ideas involves cognitive dissonance. If an individual has been working at and sacrificing for a belief system over a long period of time, evidence that contradicts the belief system is not merely an inconvenient obstacle; it is a fundamentally disruptive event. Studies on cognitive dissonance have shown that people cope with contradictory information by using rationalization, which involves favoring other people’s explanations, reframing the way that they see the contradiction, and avoiding the conflicting information. When presented with opposing viewpoints, individuals may even become more entrenched in their original beliefs.
Emotions influence how individuals cope with cognitive dissonance. Beliefs are more than thoughts/ideas; they are also used to cope with fear, anxiety, guilt, sadness, and other feelings. They provide structure when life feels disorganized, and they provide meaning when things seem to be random or unfair. Emotionally charged beliefs (those that have strong emotional significance) are processed differently from neutral information, meaning emotionally charged beliefs will be more difficult to change. If you take an emotionally charged belief away from someone without checking on their emotional needs and addressing them, the individual may feel exposed and/or unmoored. In such cases, remaining where one is may be perceived as a safer option than making a change.
How Change Actually Starts
Beliefs can be altered, but usually this occurs in safe surroundings rather than from a direct confrontation. Emotional safety usually needs to exist first. When people feel supported (e.g., they are respected) and feel like they are being listened to, as opposed to being laughed at or caught in an argument they didn’t want, they are more likely to rethink their belief. Part of the research on persuasion indicates that empathy reduces defensiveness, while ridicule or pressure causes defensiveness. With regard to credibility, or attracting an audience to hear your new or strange ideas, an audience will respond differently based on the image of the presenter (i.e., fair, caring, and credible).
The process of changing beliefs typically takes time, rather than through an epiphany or profound experience. This is consistent with the way beliefs are established (i.e., through consistent reinforcement). For instance, there are typically many small instances of doubt that can accumulate over time to weaken overall belief (e.g., unresolved questions or experiences that are not quite what is expected). The importance of stories in relation to beliefs is evident. Beliefs are part of larger narratives about who we are and how our life experiences make sense. Research shows that long-term changes in one’s experience generally require a shift in one’s overall narrative or story; this shift enables the narrative to assimilate the new perspective into a coherent whole.
Why Education Only Helps So Much
Education and critical thinking are often treated as the solution for harmful or rigid beliefs. They help, but they aren’t a cure-all. Research shows that people with strong analytical skills aren’t immune to bias. In some cases, they simply become better at defending what they already believe. Just because someone knows how to think doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be open to rethinking. When teaching or otherwise helping people develop their ability to think and learn more effectively, one must keep in mind that the best way to accomplish this is through emotions and social environments as well as logic.
For example, it may be just as important to teach someone the concept of intellectual humility and the impact of uncertainty/biased decision-making as it is to teach them the actual fact (what the answer is). Learning to accept — or be tolerant of — ambiguity is often as important as learning something new.
It’s also important to keep in mind that there are ethical limitations on changing what’s believed by an individual. Not every belief needs corrective intervention, even though it may be an unproven belief. Some beliefs (i.e., about resilience, meaning/purpose, and compassion) can create positive experiences and do not require corrective intervention unless they cause an adverse experience for the designated individual or inhibit their functioning in day-to-day life. Ultimately, the goal is not to remove meaning from an individual’s life, but rather to provide them with enough flexibility to respond to their experiences.
In a time when the news is filled with stories that anger us, and the way we relate to one another seems like a war zone, we must remind ourselves that people do not change their beliefs because they are proven wrong. Rather, it is a long, human journey based on emotions and identity, on relationships, and on the way that we have all created stories to live inside of. The changing of belief in our public lives is not going to occur through creating louder arguments and sharper facts, but through creating an environment that allows for possible change by providing people with a safe and trusting environment and a place of patience, emotional understanding, and a new way of making sense of their world so that they do not have to lose who they are through this process; it is in those moments that beliefs will begin to change because they now have a chance to breathe.