You may have heard that facts don’t care about our feelings. While that’s true, the relationship between facts and our feelings is, well, complicated. Our emotions can guide our selection of facts in ways we’re often unaware of.
Most of our beliefs aren’t the result of logically evaluating evidence. Often we form our beliefs first, then our brains find the “evidence” we need to “prove” to ourselves that our conclusions are justified.
The more a belief fits with our worldview or values, or the more important it is to our identity or social group, the better we are at carefully selecting “facts” to support what we want to be true. The resulting overconfidence is unearned… and can interfere with learning.
Motivated reasoning and confirmation bias are powerful and can lead us to incorrect conclusions. Pay attention to your emotions: Do you want (or not want) something to be true? How would you feel if you were wrong?
If you want to align your beliefs with reality, to the best of our ability to do so, question your beliefs. If they’re true, they will withstand the scrutiny.
(I’m not an expert at this and don’t claim to be, but I think (I hope) I make an effort.)
One of the most insidious barriers to aligning our beliefs with reality is the widespread use of thought-terminating clichés. These are phrases designed to shut down debate and critical thinking, often by leveraging emotional triggers or social pressure. A prominent example is the slogan “transwomen are women.” While such statements are often presented as moral absolutes, they serve a more troubling function: they discourage any questioning or critical examination of the underlying assumptions.
Thought-terminating clichés are tools of intellectual laziness, used to end conversations before they begin. They reduce complex, multifaceted issues to simplistic, binary choices, which are not only intellectually dishonest but also corrosive to open discourse. By presenting these clichés as self-evident truths, those who use them effectively demand blind acceptance rather than thoughtful consideration. This approach stifles genuine inquiry and prevents us from engaging with the real-world complexities that these issues entail.
Moreover, these clichés often carry an implicit threat: to question them is to risk being labeled as bigoted, ignorant, or socially deviant. This creates an environment where people are afraid to speak up, even when they have legitimate concerns or questions. The result is a culture of conformity, where critical thinking is not just discouraged but actively punished.
If we are serious about aligning our beliefs with reality, we must actively resist the pull of these thought-terminating clichés. This means refusing to accept them at face value and demanding the space for honest, rigorous debate. It means being willing to ask difficult questions, even when they are uncomfortable or unpopular. Most importantly, it means holding our beliefs up to the light of scrutiny, no matter how deeply we might feel about them.
In a world increasingly dominated by slogans and soundbites, the ability to think critically is more important than ever. Don’t let thought-terminating clichés dictate what you believe. Challenge them, dissect them, and see if they hold up under the weight of reason. Only by doing so can we hope to engage with reality as it truly is, rather than as we are told to see it.
Jaclynn Joyce 