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

[delosd.livejournal.com]

Looking at this from the viewpoint of changing personal beliefs (rather than changing ones opinion of whether you like spinach, or some such ), I have a suspicion that at least part of the reason people do not change their basic beliefs as they age is that they have built up a substantial "weight" of evidence. When you are young, you may have generated some belief, but you have likely not seen a great deal of evidence either for or against it. As you age, you have many opportunities to see additional evidence confirming your belief. I am far less likely to change a belief which I have seen confirmed by ten different sources than I am to change a belief that I have only seen one other confirmation for.