Old Person Brain

[nemorathwald]

Have you heard of the folk wisdom that hardly anybody changes their mind after the age of thirty? At this point one's value set and view of the world is thought to be pretty much preserved in formaldehyde for life. Recently while having conversations about controversies I could feel my mental plasticity ossifying into "old person brain."

It does very little good to say things like "I might be wrong." That statement accomplishes very little to actually produce change because of course, I wouldn't be convinced of what I'm convinced of unless I was convinced of it. Saying I could be wrong doesn't change the overwhelming likelihood that I really am right. When I say that you should not jump off a skyscraper because you would die, just because I modestly acknowledge that a freak parade balloon could possibly break your fall does not change anything. Something more than modesty is required to keep mental plasticity. I think it requires a better kind of listening.

Comments

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it is just stress. This would account for the conservatism in the tribes of old. If you changed what worked, you would probably get eaten.

Stress could also be the reason that people who debate a lot tend to change their mind less and less. I used to think it was because they were exposed to more and more evidence, but that wouldn't explain why the same happens to those whose views oppose theirs. It could be that after having tackled and answered the same question umpteen thousand times, the stress is tiring. It starts to feel like wading in molasses. One can only take so much of it and eventually become tired and resort to overused heuristics and sloganeering.