Why are people close-minded?

[碇 シンジン 27,427]

Because they are afraid of the things that they do not know or understand

[cinniemarshmallo 11]

Because everyone is very simple-minded and only thinks about themselves a lot of the time. People believe others should live life how they believe one should.. people forget that we're all individuals, and no one is meant to be the same.. it's literally impossible, especially being everyone has different expectations regarding others throughout life, it's also why being "perfect" isn't actually a thing despite how many wish it was. 

I'm not sure why people care so much about what others do anyway- that's always been an absurd thing to me.. 
How does someones hair color affect your life in any way, you know? But that's society for ya. 

[TBD 17,228]

To each of his own I guess? Even if it stupid. 

[Justin_Case001 4,857]

On 1/30/2014 at 11:31 PM, Karba said:

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:

 

 

Yeah.  Um....story of my life, bro.  I sure wish people weren't closed minded.  Being closed minded seems to be the default position for our species, unfortunately.  If you want to hear more about my opinions on this, check out my blog post entitled, The Default Position.

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

An open mind implies understanding, otherwise assimilating that which is without it, will cause fragmentation and inner conflict.

In other words your question translates as "I don't understand why people don't understand" So, if you don't understand to begin with, then why should they?

You may want to look at your immediate environment as a reflective image of your subtle qualities, including those aspects you might want to see as external to yourself.

[ZethaPonderer 2,196]

Being too close minded (AKA Fixed) means you're too rigid, inflexible in making relative decisions in your everyday life, not willing to change, and thus doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over.

I can give this. The only pro of having a closed mindset is being predictable and consistent with what you stand for in terms of your ideals, beliefs, dreams, politics etc. As Human Beings and how a Civilization must function as it would seem, its people need to live up to a predictable standard (AKA Status Quo) that would make things simple to run their everyday lives. An Unpredictable (AKA Extremely Open Minded) Society can potentially be devastating as it might have trouble stopping some people who would have every right to commit heinous acts against each other for any reason, thus a plausibility of being a failed Civilization.

Society loves Predictability as it would seem.

The only con I can think of having an Open Mindset is the likelihood of engaging in hypocritical acts where you're so 'flexible' to the point that you're borderline unpredictable with what you stand for in terms of ideals, beliefs, dreams, politics etc.

 

Here's something to think about, Is there such a thing as a stupid question? If there is, then that would imply people just ask questions without even thinking deep about the questions they're trying to ask in the first place. They're just saying what comes in their mind instantly and not just think about it for a minute. Not to mention it would also mean that they didn't do their own research into seeking answers to their own questions themselves making them come across as willfully ignorant. In other words only speak to a knowledgeable person that can answer your questions if you exhaust all possibilities of answering the questions yourself and express your inability to do so to the person out of sheer stress e.g. self-reflection, deep research etc.

Do you self-reflect or think hard when formulating a question? Do you exhaust all possibilities into answering your own questions?

[Lucky Bolt 34,915]

Well I'm a very open-minded person by nature, I don't and never will judge someone like that. And if other people are close-minded? That's their problem. I don't give a cinnamon stick what other people think of me.

[Nyactis Mewcis Catlum 670]

There is such a thing as being too open-minded that it's like your brain falls out. You can't just accept every single thing you hear - it's naive, and not to mention it'll be confusing for you as many of the ideas expressed by different people contradict each other. There's only one truth, after all.

So having an opinion is not a bad thing by any means, and feeling set in that opinion makes sense, too. The danger lies in that opinion not being a well-informed one as well as believing that just because you think something that everyone else should think that same thing. That in itself is an opinion that you can hold, but it's so diametrically opposed to the way real life functions that you're going to struggle in life if you want everyone to agree with you on everything. It's just ain't happenin', pal.

Being open-minded doesn't mean that you just accept everything that you're told, and it's a mistake that a lot of people make. Being open-minded means being willing to consider other perspectives or at least not dismiss them outright and give all of your opinions that you do hold proper scrutiny and thought. Just because they're your opinions, doesn't mean they're infallible, and that's something you need to keep in mind. At the same time, don't be so weak-willed that you're unable to form an opinion at all.

Middle ground is also a fallacy, not one well discussed, but it's there. Sometimes, one idea is just right over the other and there's no way you can compromise or find a solution in between them.

[Guest]

I think for most people it has to do with accepting unknown factors into a life that was difficult to make comfortable in the first place. I have my own barriers when it comes to certain things but I still very much prefer to be on good terms with most people. I generally think of close-minded people as victims of circumstance. 

[Olly 1,008]

People (adults) have developed cherished ideas and opinions as they get older. Often, the older someone is, the less likely it is they'll change their mind. Generally, people are very apprehensive about other opinions/worldviews, because it's almost perceived as a threat to their own. Our first response is to reject other views, rather than look closer.

People are driven by fear of anything different, we want to safeguard ourselves (our opinions) and most of the time, we dislike being challenged. This is why debate is difficult, because people go in wanting to 'defeat the enemy' rather than actually come to a conclusion. Most of us are guilty of being close-minded sometimes, but there are those who are close-minded almost by nature, and will not humor anything that doesn't sound like what they want to hear.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re close-minded if someone's attention is arrested by a rainbow wig or anything else that’s out of the ordinary. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing or judgment of something different. It’s simply a matter of being a novelty to the ordinary; not many people go around wearing rainbow wigs, a suit of armor, super hero costumes or other unusual things, so it’s bound to grab attention when somebody does. In many cases when heads turn, they’re turning to appreciate something new and different rather than judging it negatively.

We don’t need a magic spell to make others more open-minded as much as we need a spell to make us feel less persecuted in our own minds. Because so much of it IS in our own minds.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,371]

We are expected to be normal, participating and talking frequently, which are difficult things to do  

[Mirage 24,142]

Because of our evolutionary makeup that's been developed over millions of years, survival is strongly dependent on the familiar and predictable. So we have an ancient mechanism to be suspicious of the unusual or out of place.

Take animals for instance, especially dogs. They are very suspicious of anything 'not normal' in their environment (unless of course they are trained to handle a certain amount of new experiences, like police dogs). Pack animals, ie tribal, create a system of normalcy for interrelational comfort and survival.

This i think this is the root cause of why it's 'easy' for people to live close minded. It's not the only reason - we're obviously very complex, I just think it's a very influential instinct.

 

Edited March 5 by Mirage

[Rethajni 1,994]

Because their intelect hasnt developed enough to think for themselves, they are NPC who repeat everything they have been taught because for them, is enough to satisfy their lives, unfortunately the people who are NPCs they grow up in places where they teach them not to think for themselves but follow the  rules of their society, religion or family codes

[Octavia Heartstrings 28,412]

A lot of people don't want anything to ever change, and they automatically fear anyone who is different from them. They're usually taught to think this way by closed-minded parents, or by arbitrary and meaningless rules that society has drilled into them. They are not particularly good at critical thinking, and are even worse at challenging their own biases and considering different points of view.

[Iforgotmybrain 3,514]

People are naturally afraid of things that are new, unknown, or different. And it takes way less effort to simply close your mind off to new things vs willingly go out of your way to try and understand something new or different. Hence why there's a lot of close-minded people, it's the easy way out. Some people also just lack the empathy to connect and understand people that are different from themselves or their own personal community.