what is denial? it is the psychological process of substituting an artificial narrative for a real one.
why does denial occur? Because real explanations are not satisfactory to certain minds.
Example: New town shooter kills 26 with one assault rifle.
Alternative narratives: there was a second shooter. no bodies were found, no video has been shown. the whole thing was a scam, a hoax, a staged event.
stimulus for inaccurate narrative : deep belief that guns are a good thing. belief that since I wold never slaughter a classroom full of six year olds, nobody else would either. Belief that B. Obama is an evil man, capable of any degree of deception.
example 2: Global warming is a hoax. either it is not getting hotter, or the heating trend is not explainable in the way scientists state it is.
Stimulus for inaccurate narrative: a deep belief that 7 billion humans lack the ability to impact the atmosphere on a global scale. religious beliefs that our planet was created for our use, with a guarantee that we cannot overuse it. intense dislike of B Obama and a deep conviction that he is an evil man, capable of any degree of deception (see above. :))
Example 3: the democratic party is stealing elections through massive voter fraud.
Stimulus for inaccurate narrative: we lost to Obama twice. it was so obvious that both our guys were so much better than him- surely American voters could not have actually given him a majority vote (even if they previously did, twice, to GWB) .
There is essentially no difference between these examples, in terms of psychology. nd in every case, conservative suspicion and fear lead to the exact behaviors that are Seen as a menace from the political opponent: deception, intransigence, and cheating.
Sadly, me understanding this accomplishes nothing. I have no way of convincing the deniers of the reasons behind their beliefs.
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Comments: 7
Only this winter I have discovered the research on "mindset" by Dr. Carol Dweck and others that seems to shed light on this. We all have some degree of a "fixed mindset" or a "growth mindset," and the difference is tied to our beliefs about intelligence, whether we see it as fixed or as something we can change with hard work over time.
Intelligence is deeply improveable, but most of us don't know that yet, and strive to protect what we have and to avoid risks that might show we are not so smart. If I can say this without being too inflammatory, I suspect there is a close correlation between conservatism and a fixed mindset, but only a growth mindset seems to offer us the power to adapt to the world's new problems.
More info is here at the Brainology site.
This might all seem abstract and ignorable, but I can now tell you that using these concepts in my classroom is like stumbling on the holy grail of teaching. It get kids working hard, taking risks and enjoying the flow of information in a more relaxed classroom where I'm not fighting their resistance all the time. I do not fully understand all the implications yet, but this is a sketch of what I'm piecing together. The contrast between my teaching now and the state of the larger world is striking. We can't seem to agree on what to teach to each other, maybe because our mindset keeps us from wanting to learn. What is even more fascinating is that we adopt a fixed mindset for very rational reasons--to give us emotional protection from such simple things as being bullied or even for being praised for our intelligence.
BTW: Didn't Dubya lose the popular vote in 2000?