Why are people close-minded?

[Karba 62]

Just thought of this randomly and it made my angry.

 

Why would people look strange at ya if you for example: had rainbow colored hair?

Why is that weird? WHY? 

I dont get it. I wish there was some kind of magic spell that made people more open-minded  :okiedokielokie:

 

 

[EndtheRaven 161]

Well, rainbow coloured hair is eye-catching no matter what haha. But really though, people are just raised to fit in and be accepted, so they basically assume anything different is weird in some way. Kind of sad, but that's how most of society is. I like people who are different and stand out though. 

[Acchan 232]

I actually had rainbow colored hair for a bit in high school. I made it work for me.

[Burning Question 69]

Pff in my high school people were asking me what I'm wearing goddamn pinns/ buttons for or wtf my arm warmers are cause only I was wearing them. O.e

[Dddrgn 450]

People are raised to believe that if you differ from the norm in any way, there is something wrong with you. For example, the other day my parents told me that I needed a haircut. I told them that I like it this length - my sisters have long hair, why can't I? They told me that my sisters can have long hair because they are girls, and that I should have short hair since I'm a boy. I responded by telling them that that makes no sense, hair length has absolutely nothing to do with gender, just because in our culture it is considered the norm for people of the male gender to have short hair does not mean that we should, it's a gender stereotype reinforced by today's society. They responded by making me get a haircut.

[EndtheRaven 161]

People are raised to believe that if you differ from the norm in any way, there is something wrong with you. For example, the other day my parents told me that I needed a haircut. I told them that I like it this length - my sisters have long hair, why can't I? They told me that my sisters can have long hair because they are girls, and that I should have short hair since I'm a boy. I responded by telling them that that makes no sense, hair length has absolutely nothing to do with gender, just because in our culture it is considered the norm for people of the male gender to have short hair does not mean that we should, it's a gender stereotype reinforced by today's society. They responded by making me get a haircut.

I have hair down to my shoulders, and everyone asks when I'm getting a hair cut lol. Gets kind of irritating. 

[Spartan 433]

All walks of life are closed minded, stright, gay, Obama supporters, and the normal person.. many believe one thing and ignore the rest..

 

How i see life though is, help me and ill help you.. be my friend and ill be yours.. simple really

[Guest]

A lot of times they were raised to be closed minded. Their parents were, and passed their beliefs down to them. Or if they see something that's "not normal" it makes them uncomfortable because they don't understand it and they think it's bad.

[Deesinn 393]

Just thought of this randomly and it made my angry.

 

Why would people look strange at ya if you for example: had rainbow colored hair?

Why is that weird? WHY? 

I dont get it. I wish there was some kind of magic spell that made people more open-minded  :okiedokielokie:

 

It's weird because most people don't have rainbow colored hair.  Depending on how you where raised, the environment they live/ed in, your own learned emotional coping mechanisms, and their current mood can predict their reaction to the situation.

 

Anyways, enough boring stuff, since you can't control other people, you have to stop caring.  Why does this make you angry, who cares man!  Fuck em all!

 

I wanted to paint my car rainbow, but I think I'm going to go with hot pink.  When I was younger, me and like 4 friends painted an old guys garage all rainbow one night because he told us we couldn't play street hockey on the road.  BAM bitch!  RAINBOWFIED   

 

 

People are raised to believe that if you differ from the norm in any way, there is something wrong with you. For example, the other day my parents told me that I needed a haircut. I told them that I like it this length - my sisters have long hair, why can't I? They told me that my sisters can have long hair because they are girls, and that I should have short hair since I'm a boy. I responded by telling them that that makes no sense, hair length has absolutely nothing to do with gender, just because in our culture it is considered the norm for people of the male gender to have short hair does not mean that we should, it's a gender stereotype reinforced by today's society. They responded by making me get a haircut.

 

Haha what?  Your parents sound really annoying! Bunch of losers.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Deesinn

[Galen 1,353]

As others have said, it has to do with people being conditioned into thinking that anything beyond the "normal" is wrong. I've come to undestand that it can't be wrong (unless proven harmful) when I realized normality is something that can't clearly be defined and is subject to constant change. Which leads to the inherent problem of people's fear of change. When people see something they don't consider normal, they see a kind of change in people, and they don't like to see it because it's outside their comfort zone. Feeling afraid or weak because of change is not a wrong feeling in and of itself. What is truly wrong is shutting it out or shunning people who are different or becoming different. That's running away from it and refusing to grow up. Being able to accept differences is the key instead.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Freedan

[SanityNotIncluded 335]

Why are people closed-minded? Presuming they're genuinely ignorant, there are a number of potential reasons that I can think of:

• Misinformation: Incorrect information leading to an inappropriate judgment or action
• Fear of Being Wrong: Some people believe that admitting that you were wrong is a sign of weakness. They do not wish to think of themselves as weak so they will shut out any information which contradicts their views.
• Fear of Judgment: The fear that by accepting a view or perspective (even if it is correct), they will be isolated from some sort of social group.
• Mindset Confusion: If people are indoctrinated into particular ways of thinking, they will struggle to understand viewpoints which require a different way of thinking to understand. Rather than use these different ways of thinking in order to understand (and critique) the opposing view, they may instead reject it entirely - basically because it's intellectually easier.

 

Probably more, but that's all I could come up with for the moment.

[Nerdy Luigi 2,064]

People are just... Confined to the norms.

Simply, souls like myself (That aren't quite so close-minded) can't, for example, have pink hair. Simply because it's not NORMAL, and the close-mindedness of people will get them asking me "Why did you dye your hair... PINK?"

Also, because as said by @SanityNotIncluded (That is a great show...), Fear of Judgement. People don't understand that you can express yourself, and not be like everyone else.

[Unikitty 1,211]

Because there are lots of people on this planet, and the entirety of the planet has been raised on flawed methods and standards. People dislike change, and as such, archaic impressions and beliefs still hold to the majority of the world's population.

[Acchan 232]

All walks of life are closed minded, stright, gay, Obama supporters, and the normal person.. many believe one thing and ignore the rest..

 

How i see life though is, help me and ill help you.. be my friend and ill be yours.. simple really

How did Obama supporters get its own category?

[Spartan 433]

How did Obama supporters get its own category?

Cause their different >.> some people i know call them 'special kind of stupid'... but lets keep this one where its at and leave it at that?

[Acchan 232]

Cause their different >.> some people i know call them 'special kind of stupid'... but lets keep this one where its at and leave it at that?

Very well then. Although I suspect that these "some people" of which you speak may include you, I will not make unnecessary drama.

[Spartan 433]

Very well then. Although I suspect that these "some people" of which you speak may include you, I will not make unnecessary drama.

lol im not a fan of him, and never will be.. but when people go around saying 'hes the best thing ever', its just irritating really.. but anyway.

 

 

Close minded people are everywhere, soo live with it.. you cant change it, and only way you can is illegal

[NomDeSpite 452]

Because of that nasty little thing called "Cognitive Dissonance" as explained by the psychologist Leon Festinger. Often, it is physically painful for a person to consider information that contradicts what they currently believe. So close-mindedness is a pain avoidance strategy.

[Winterbass 763]

Everyone is in fact raised to be close-minded. It's a natural process wherein you try to defend yourself, even if something unknown is completely natural.

 

The way this works is that you release endogenous morphine in your brain, this activates your survival instinct, making you defensive or even hostile towards the unknown entity, even when it's not dangerous at all. Though it's sometimes completely unnecessary, it does help you get out of troubling situations. For example, you tend to be alerted when you see a group of teenagers vandalizing something, and you tend to walk around them or walk by them quickly. It helps you be safe in some situations.

 

Secondly, your parents are probably raising you in a way to be "right" for society, rewarding you every time you do something good. This releases dopamine and serotonin in your brain, those things that make you feel good. If you continue to do "well", you continue to release those feel-good substances.

 

This creates an even bigger contrast between "do what's right because that's good" and "everything outside of the norm is most likely wrong".

 

Only the people who realize that being close-minded isn't always the right way to go, are the ones who can quickly shake the feeling of becoming defensive. Even then, open-minded people do still become defensive most of the time when an opinion of theirs is being targeted. 

 

So yea, people don't realize they are being controlled by hormones, stimulants, depressants and neurotransmitters a lot more than anyone ever realizes.

 

This is just the biological side of things, there's always the psychological as well, but that has been explained already in minor detail.

[Sir Hugsalot 8,621]

Just thought of this randomly and it made my angry.

 

Why would people look strange at ya if you for example: had rainbow colored hair?

Why is that weird? WHY? 

I dont get it. I wish there was some kind of magic spell that made people more open-minded  :okiedokielokie:

Because it is easier. It's easier to critisize something, You don't understand rather than reading about it before having Your own opinion. We, bronies are good example. People outside tend to see us as grown males that watch cartoon for little girls. But judging by that they start calling us nerds, perverts, even pedophiles, overall total losers. It's easier for them than checking what is MLP about and how does fandom look like. Society in general does not approve of people that differ from norm and it dislikes them without even asking why are they like that. It's how things were always like and I doubt it will change soon. Not when this way of thinking is regulary taught by some parents or mass media. 

[Zekromic 1,054]

because most people are stupid, they believe it's their problem what others do

[Tigerpop198 696]

It's easy, keeping with what would be considered normal, is a lot easier than to go out and try up something different.

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

Sadly way too many people are close minded. If you went out to a mall with rainbow hair you'd definitely get some funny looks.  Luckily it seems like more and more people are becoming open-minded as time goes on. 

[Scootalove 10,684]

Most people are raised close minded or they choose to be close minded, because they will judge anyone if they get a weird response from anything that they do.

[FatalRain 108]

Everyone's minds operate differently and a lot of times it's what they're raised to think that will effect them later on in life

I also believe some people are too focused on other things that they have a hard time imagining things in another way

I'm not condoning the idea at all, it's just the way some people are

In my opinion, the most you can do is calmly explain yourself and your views

if they at least listen, you're already changing them

even if just the littlest