{"items": [{"author": "Sam", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/289706461098417?comment_id=289714867764243", "anchor": "fb-289714867764243", "service": "fb", "text": "Fundamental idea of sociologist Emile Durkheim - social change is a slow, laborious process.", "timestamp": "1330629883"}, {"author": "Gianna", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/289706461098417?comment_id=289724034429993", "anchor": "fb-289724034429993", "service": "fb", "text": "When you figure out how to solve this problem, let me know.", "timestamp": "1330630925"}, {"author": "Alex", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/289706461098417?comment_id=289748021094261", "anchor": "fb-289748021094261", "service": "fb", "text": "These are fantastic points, Jeff. I think the social phenomenon you describe, where someone keeps arguing their point with you throughout a conversation only to change their perspective based on your persuasion afterwards, I think that's a totally acceptable human trait and one I wish more people recognized. It may even be the solution to the dilemma you're articulating. It's a way to change your mind without facing the stark social consequences of doing so when attention is on them.", "timestamp": "1330633222"}, {"author": "Todd", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/112947709146257842066", "anchor": "gp-1330669134540", "service": "gp", "text": "In addition to the status angle, I think another aspect is your sense of self. If the belief you're questioning is sufficiently important to your view of yourself and what you stand for, then admitting you've changed your mind is admitting that you're actually a different person in some sense.\n
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\nThat could be particularly bad if you've taken a lot of actions that were predicated on that belief (in your case Jeff, suppose, for the sake of argument, someone convinced you that charitable giving was completely useless or even harmful).\n
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\nI think in this kind of situation it's hard to even admit it to yourself, much less to others, and yet it's this kind of belief that's arguably most important to be able to change, since it has such a large influence on your behavior, and thus getting it wrong is particularly bad.\n
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\nAnyway, I think finishing a conversation defending old beliefs, and then later acting on new ones, is still significantly better than what I observe a lot of people doing (shutting down a conversation if it's not going well and refusing to give consideration to the possibility of being wrong), even if it's not ideal.", "timestamp": 1330669134}]}