Why don't some people like change, what is it they are afraid of exactly?

Answer 1

Fearful people think change will bring something worse than what they have. Optimistic people think change will bring something better than what they have. Realistic people think with their minds instead of their feelings, and accept change for what it is - inevitable.

Whether someone reacts with fear or optimism or realism depends on whether or not the change affects what they have (or assume they have) or what they want to have.

Answer 2

If you're on top of the heap, any real change is likely to be a step down for you. So the movers and the shakers have a vested interest in resisting change. One of the ways that they institutionalize their resistance to change is by using their control over others' opinions (via control of the educational systems, media or religion) to condition the lower classes to fear change.

We can clearly see this in the Middle East, where the sheiks and mullahs are the ones whining the loudest about how democracy and Islam are incompatible. It's harder to see here in the USA where the corporate fatcats have created a consumer culture where most people are too fat and happy to rebel.

Answer 3

It's a fear of the unknown and subsequent loss of control. For example, people are often afraid of changes at work and this can often be because they sudden;y won't have all the answers. I actually have a colleague who hates the job now and really wants more money but will not move job because she will have to start again and will lose the control she currently has in her position.

Answer 4

People, some people, don't like change, even when they know that it is likely to lead to improvement, because it always involves loss - loss of the old order, the way things were, even if they were awful. It means they have to consider, and to some extent, mourn the loss of what they took to be the status quo and re-evaluate where everything fits in the new order.

Everything, including every cell in every living organism, struggles to achieve stasis which, it is arguable, is unattainable. Facing change means accepting that the struggle continues.

Personally, I try to see change as an exciting challenge whenever I can - an opportunity to grow and develop and improve. it's not always possible, even for somebody who prefers a "glass-half-full" approach.

Answer 5

"Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,
And makes us rather bear the ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of."

--Shakespeare, Hamlet, III:1

Even those who don't fear change tend to be stressed by it; change often forces us to behave in different ways, do new things and experience new people. It raises all manner of questions that cut to the heart: will I fail? Will I suffer? Will I be ridiculed for my inability to cope with the new situation?

Most of all, change challenges who we hold ourselves to be, our very identities as we have built them up. We learn how to fit into a world, a culture, a job or a family, and we are comfortable in that fit, or at least acculturated to it. Then something changes and the old way doesn't work. For some people change is a threat to their own identities, even if the change itself is outside them, because it threatens the structures in which they live and by which they define themselves -- husband, mother, student, employee, whatever.

Answer 6

They are afraid of the unknown. They are also conditioned and are used to what they know. Change requires the person to change and some people don't want to have to learn new things.

Answer 7

People aren't afraid of change.. it's having it forced on them to suit some do gooders purpose just look around you! the country's sinking fast and still these idiots insist on changing it for the worse, God help us next year with these changes.

Answer 8

I think people don't like change b/c they are so comfortable and have become so closed minded that they can't see or comprehend things differently. They are afraid b/c they've allowed themselves to settle into this completely therefore no longer have the ability to expect.
Everything changes. EVERYTHING. So why shouldn't we expect it and accept it?

Answer 9

I don't like it sometimes because things get worse instead of better as I'd optimistically hoped and worked for. Then I feel stupid for hoping so much, and wonder if I hoped for too much when it was not too much at all, but not even enough by some people's standards.... 2 Many Dogs has best answer.

Answer 10

they are afraid of a lack of familiarity. Its like moving house, you have to get settled all over again. Some people find this traumatic or unneccessary.