You Should Care About What You Believe
One of the most dramatic shifts of the internet age has been the ability for any voice, from anywhere, to reach millions of people around the world with almost incomprehensible speed. The benefits of this are numerous and hard to understate, but so are the challenges. “Citizen journalists”, as well as professionals, can report on events as they happen in ways that previous generations only dreamed of. Likeminded individuals can develop deep connections and build entire communities, to an extent never before possible - without the need to ever be in the same place. We live in a golden age of communication and information access, which very few would be willing to give up.
However, this has come with a cost. Practically any information can travel the world instantly, regardless of its veracity. Indeed, we see that false or unsubstantiated claims often travel far faster and spread far wider than well-researched, evidence-backed observations (sources: 1 2 3). Sensationalized “takes” tend to spread faster than thoughtful analysis. Skepticism is reserved for anything that clashes with our preconceived notions and internalized narratives – it is elided as a cognitive optimization when we encounter something that matches what we already believe.
Everyone is subject to these tendencies. Some just haven’t realized it. We often talk about the concept of critical thinking as the means to overcome problems like confirmation bias, susceptibility to logical fallacies, or the urge to react emotionally to provocative inputs. However, I think too few of us ever really stop to think about what critical thinking actually entails, or how to get better at it. Like “common sense”, everyone wants to believe they possess it, even if they’ve never really attempted to define or study it. Indeed, I think this itself is a form of confirmation bias, stemming from ingrained insecurities about admitting our entire way of thinking could be flawed.
You may feel some of that insecurity just reading about this topic. In fact, I kind of hope that you do. If so, you are not alone; I can feel it gnawing away at me as I write this. Neither human nature nor societal pressures encourage introspection, least of all about the fundamentals of our character – how we think, how reasonable and rational we are, and why we believe the things we believe. We are defensive beings in this regard, whether by nature or nurture. Why fear critically assessing our core beliefs? I think it’s not unlike the apprehension we may fear ahead of a diagnostic medical test. We feel anxiety about the test, not so much because of the test itself, but because we fear the possibility of learning that something is wrong with us. As I think the saying goes, the uncertainty of superposition is bliss.
I’m not here to tell you that I’ve solved this. I don’t think anybody has. Nor am I going to teach anyone how to think critically in a few paragraphs. Instead, I want to encourage you to do one thing, and that is to care. What do I mean by that?
Many years ago, I was watching a video of a podcast discussing the concept of agnosticism – a term most often applied to religious views. The host explained his understanding that being agnostic is a statement about what you know, whereas theism versus atheism is about what you believe. Sometimes we believe things we don’t or can’t know – we call this faith. At one point in the discussion, the host said something to the effect of, “I want to believe as many true things, and as few false things, as I possibly can”. It's a simple enough statement, but it stuck with me. I don’t think anyone fully achieves this goal, but I think the aspiration is important. And I think we should all ask ourselves two things:
1) Do I care whether the things I believe are true?
2) If so, what am I doing about it?
I think about this a lot when I see information which I know to be false being shared online. My inclination is always to correct, clarify, or provide context. I strive to do this politely and courteously (though I’m willing to acknowledge I don’t always succeed at this, especially when I believe the other party is acting in bad faith, or when it’s the 85th time I’ve seen the same bogus claim - it’s something I’m working on). What I’ve found, unfortunately, is that many people - including many whom I respect and share a lot of views with, simply don’t want to know if something they’ve been saying is false. This seems to happen a lot when dealing with convenient untruths – claims which support a narrative they’ve adopted, and especially claims which are convincing to others.
I struggle with this, because I’ve always assumed that everyone wants to believe as many true things, and as few false things, as possible. When I get something wrong, I want to be corrected. That’s how I learn, grow, and get closer to achieving my ultimate goal of maximizing the correctness of my beliefs. Of course, it can be embarrassing to realize you’ve been wrong, especially when you’ve unintentionally misled others. I think it should be embarrassing - if you consider yourself an honorable person of integrity, and I hope that you do. Being embarrassed means that, at some level, you care.
My appeal to you here is to care more. I want you to care so much about the correctness of the things you believe that you feel energized to do something about it. To challenge your preconceptions, to welcome corrections, and to overcome your fear of embarrassment and tell people when you were wrong. Not shyly out of embarrassment, but proudly - because in doing so, you can help others achieve the same noble goal.
I’m not claiming this is a novel idea. In fact, I think it’s fundamental to the concept of a growth mindset. I’m sure some of you have heard of this and had reactions like, “I already have whatever that is” (just like with critical thinking), or “that’s just some marketing woke psychobabble”, or “that’s a nice platitude but it doesn’t really matter”. I was skeptical when I first encountered it (probably exhibiting some combination of the first and third reactions). I changed my mind when I saw how it was being applied at Microsoft under Satya Nadella. After returning to the company in 2016, I saw real, positive change thanks to many people, including some whom I thought were unlikely to be receptive (those who seemed deeply ingrained in “old Microsoft” culture) taking it to heart.
Now, I long to see that same cultural shift permeate every corner of our society.