From your Experience, Are people Commonly Unable to Entertain the Possibility that they Are Mistaken?

Question

MrNiceGuy, Perhaps I Should Adopt the e. e. cummings Approach, What Do you See that Necessitates Capitalization, and What Does Not?

MrNiceGuy, it's Not that I don't Realize I Overuse Capitalization, I Just Find it Unclear When Must Do So.

MrNiceGuy, Back to the Question, it's too Bad Many people See Themselves as Infallible, they Are Not.

Thanks K, Yeah Naive.

Answer 1

In general? Oh yeah. Many of us seem to equate mistakes with failure rather than see them as instructive life experiences common to ALL, without exception.

Some of us are too emotionally fragile to feel anything negative. Instead, we'll feign living inside grandiose, unattainable, impossible, elitist, fairy-land ideals.

It seems much more rewarding for some people to let their emotions think for them: "If I pretend to know and deny not knowing, at all costs, I feel good". Also rewarding for some to not only let their emotions do the thinking, but to prevent logical, intelligent thought all together: "If I make a mistake, I will surely adopt others' predicted reactions, feel bad, guilty even, and since I can't emotionally deal with that, I will not make mistakes, nor admit to fallibility, which will then make fallibility an impossibility". If this was cognitively available, most would recognize it as rather mindless.

People who are unable to entertain the possibility that they may be mistaken, I fear, may be fairly naive, in the life-skills and life-experience department. Not very cognitively aware and perhaps emotionally conflicted about what it really means to be wrong, to make mistakes, to say I'm sorry. More importantly, though, what can ever be learned without mistakes?

Answer 2

Not Me. I Screw Up All The Time. Is There Any Reason You Capitalize All The Words In Your Sentance? Just Wondering.

EDIT: OK. I guess I was mistaken. Ain't I a great guy?
You had to have seen that one coming.

Answer 3

This question put me in mind of one of the songs from "The King and I", called "Puzzlement".

Here's an excerpt from it:

"There are times I almost think
Nobody sure of what he absolutely know.
Everybody find confusion
In conclusion he concluded long ago
And it puzzle me to learn
That tho' a man may be in doubt of what he know,
Very quickly he will fight...
He'll fight to prove that what he does not know is so!"

Answer 4

Yes. It's a rare individual who can actually listen to an opposing viewpoint, and an even rarer one that can accept that persons argument and say "You're right, I'm wrong".

Answer 5

Yeah, especially on here. You can have proof and still get a thumbs down for being right.

Answer 6

Nobody ever wants to admit their mistakes. Even the most insufferable neocon doesn't know he's stupid.

Answer 7

No, people commonly learn from their mistakes!!!

Answer 8

In our culture, it is better to be known as "stubborn" than it is to be known as "wrong".