2025 April 22 Can we ever be open minded?

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Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website about reimagining your life. Thanks for joining me today to talk about not believing everything we see. If you like what you hear today, please leave a like, subscribe, tell your friends, or send me a message.

We're taking a one-week break. We’ll wrap up the SMART goals and everything we talked about last week, but since Easter is in the middle, people probably have other things going on. It’s a holiday weekend. Hopefully you were able to think about other things over the weekend. I also wanted to give you a chance to work on your homework a little, reflect on different ideas, and get back into the swing of things after the holiday.

So instead, we’re going to take a quick look at how our built-in biases—formed as a normal part of life—actually become more ingrained, even when we're reading or watching neutral material, whether it’s online or on TV. And how we can try to keep a more open-minded, neutral perspective.

Although the word bias has gotten a pretty bad reputation over the years, in reality, it's just a survival mechanism. It works by looking at past experiences and making future decisions based on previous outcomes. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s a useful and necessary survival tool.

We form those lessons from what actually happens to us, and those experiences help guide our future choices. We avoid things based on what we've learned—whether it’s from our own life directly, or from second- or third-hand experiences.

Even things you read about or that someone else tells you—those can still be okay. When you take a swimming class, they tell you, Don’t swim right after you eat a big meal and have a full stomach. You risk getting cramps. The bias seems pretty harmless.

But what about when our news of the world and other sources of information themselves have a bias? Then we tend to inherit that bias ourselves, unless we're told otherwise. We think of our sources as either neutral or as agreeing with us to some extent.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but this is where it starts to get particularly interesting. There's a fellow, Mr. Roland Friar. He's a professor of economics at Harvard. He recently completed a study with a coworker based on a 1979 paper by Charles G. Lord, et al—I don’t know who else was with him—testing people's perceptions of neutral material.

What Mr. Friar’s study showed, which agreed with that earlier study, was that even when people are given objectively neutral material, they tend to view and interpret it in alignment with their own current views.

This holds true even when the possible outcomes are totally binary, like yes or no, or true or false. You’d think if it’s that clear-cut, maybe people would be a little more neutral in their reading. But even then—if they already thought yes, they’ll interpret the article to support yes, no matter what it says. And if they already thought no, they’ll stick with no.

They'll think no, no matter what the article says. So what makes this particularly fascinating is that in Mr. Friar's study, after measuring the participants' degree of initial bias on the topics of interest, they found that even after reading—again—objectively neutral material on a subject, the majority of people expressed more extreme biases when measured with the exact same questions as before reading the material.

It's fascinating. And this is where it devolves into the scary aspect. Think about this. They read something that had no pro or con, no for or against—just a series of facts. And by reading it through their own lens, from their own viewpoint, people became more extreme in their bias.

So instead of a small amount of objectively neutral material, now imagine flooding participants—namely you and me—with a constant stream of curated content, selected to align with an algorithm's interpretation of our biases, in the hopes of keeping us reading longer.

We just showed that even if the content were truly neutral in its presentation, we’d still take our existing bias and become more convinced of it. And now, we’re being fed a steady diet on social media of what an algorithm thinks we’ll find interesting. So the algorithm gives us content that matches our bias. Now we’re reading what we think is neutral material and—huh—it all agrees with what we already think. What a lucky coincidence.

This is an opinion piece titled The Economics of Polarization. It’s in Monday’s, April 21st, 2025 Wall Street Journal. The conclusion in the article is that in a situation or society where information is very plentiful, as it is right now—we have all sorts of ways we can get information: we can get it on the internet, from social media, from the news on TV, from podcasts. I mean, it's almost limitless. There's still radio and everything else as well.

In a society where information is plentiful, even if it’s presented in a truly neutral fashion, people will tend to become even more divided and more extreme in their biases and views. That’s not so encouraging. So what are we going to do?

As always, try to be aware of your biases. That's difficult, frankly. I try to review mine now and again, at least the ones that pop into my head, and see if they’re still serving me well. Many of them are essential.

For example, do I have a bias against large dogs that don’t wag their tails, and bark aggressively? I sure do. And I don’t care how many times the owner says, Oh, he’s very friendly. My brother just got bit—almost in the face—by that exact same situation. So that bias serves me well. It’s not going anywhere.

However, am I biased against certain types of drivers? I actually have been backing off on that one, because I started looking at it more neutrally and realized that bias wasn’t really accurate. I switched to a more empathetic approach—trying to understand that maybe people aren’t fools, but maybe they’re really lost or unsure, especially if they’re in a new area.

I look at the license plate—if it says it’s from a different state, I realize it’s probably not that they’re afraid to go around a traffic circle—they probably just don’t know where to get off. So I try to be a little more patient.

There are a lot of biases like that that we form. At first, we think, Oh, it’s because old people, young people. Whatever. Pick whatever easy characteristic you want to use—those people tend to drive slow and they’re really annoying.

But in reality, we’ve picked and associated the wrong things and formed a false bias in our minds. Trying to sort those out and catch them takes some conscious effort, but when you start looking at it, you can weed some of them out and say, That really doesn’t serve me very well.

If you start paying attention, you realize, Hmm, I’m actually wrong a lot more times with that bias than I am right.

Another approach—although it’s a bit harder—is to try and see the other side being presented when you hear a story or read an article or see something on the internet or hear a podcast or whatever.

This one’s kind of difficult. I skim a lot of material. There’s a lot of stuff I’d like to read, and with this particular article, I read the first paragraph and thought, Well, this seems like it’s going over quick. It wasn’t heading in the direction I had expected it to—which is a bias. But then I thought, you know, they devoted a pretty prime space to it. I should probably just take the time and read it. And indeed, when I first read it—even then—I was kind of, Eh, I don’t know...

I’d agree with that—and then I reread it again and thought, no, actually, when you just read it without trying to make it fit your expectations, the message is quite different than I first thought. It takes a lot of patience to do that, and it’s not always easy, because we like to see things that make us feel smart. Oh, look at this. This person thinks the same way I do. They must be a very smart person, because I’m very smart. That’s a natural bias.

Working through that and getting to the point where you purposely look for opposing points of view is difficult. A lot of people are very bad at it. I have my troubles for sure, but I know a lot of people who are just horrific at it. It’s because they’re not interested in looking for a dissenting point of view. They don’t want to be challenged.

But if you want to be really effective in society—and really effective in anything—you really want to challenge yourself. Not just to make your points better, but to make them relevant.

It isn’t about proving someone else wrong if I get into a discussion with them. It’s really important to have discussions with people you don’t necessarily agree with. It’s not to make a point—not to convince somebody else. The whole point is for both people to see a differing viewpoint—and to think about how their viewpoint meshes, or doesn’t mesh, with the other one.

Then, to see if your point of view is still relevant—if it still makes sense. If your biases are still relevant, if they still hold up. When you go into a discussion that way, you’re much more likely to come out with a lot more knowledge—both about yourself and the other person. And also, about which parts of your bias are accurate… and which parts are just totally wrong.

It takes a certain amount of self-confidence to do that, because it's always hard to say, Hmm, I've been wrong for a while. But while our survival mechanism may automatically lead us to more extreme points of view, we're endowed with the ability to recognize that tendency and take steps to avoid it.

So I’d encourage you the next time you get into a discussion, or when you're reading a piece of material, don't just say, Oh, that agrees with me. They're really wonderful. Read through it. See if there's any dissenting points of view.

It's even harder when you look at something and, right off the bat, think, Oh, they don't agree with me. Try to read through it anyway. You might still come to the same conclusion at the end—Yeah, I truly disagree with them—but try to think it through. Really see if you’re looking at their point of view, analyzing it, and asking whether it’s consistent or inconsistent with your own thinking.

A lot of times, you’ll find that you thought it was leading to a particular point—and maybe they’re just repeating popular points of view. But that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it out of hand. Read it, think about it, and if you still disagree, come up with reasonable responses. Not just, Oh, well, we all know that topic’s wrong. Actually come up with reasons—and see if those reasons are still accurate.

So, your homework for this week is to take a bias that you know you have—because we all have them. It could be something you learned on your own, something you learned from others, something handed down. Oh, Grandpa always said thus and such. Take that bias, and examine it in the full light of day. Don’t assume it’s correct, and don’t just say, Well, I know that one’s right. Anytime you tend to fall back on a belief like that, stop and examine it. See if it really is accurate—and if it still serves you well.

A lot of things we’ve learned over time are just 100% wrong. Who knows how they got started? It doesn’t really matter how. They did. But it’s up to you to stop them. Make those thoughts serve you again. Extra points if you think about where it came from—because then you can start to look for similar ideas that might also be outdated, and begin to reframe your thinking to be more aware of facts versus biases masquerading as common knowledge.

That’s especially important as we try to stay semi neutral in politics. I may do a separate podcast where I’m not neutral at all in politics—but that’s another whole story.

Right now, there are a lot of people saying a lot of things, and they’re basing it on common knowledge. And it doesn’t take much digging to see that some of that common knowledge is 100% wrong.

So serve yourself well. This isn’t about saying everything someone else says is wrong—that’s just a different bias. But whatever you hear—whether you agree with it or disagree with it—look at the opposing side and see if there’s any truth to it at all. If there is, you might have some adjusting to do in your own way of looking at the world.

So that’s it for the evening. Thanks very much for stopping by. 

Remember the many wars going on, the unrest happening pretty much throughout the world. It’s a mess right now—and it’s certainly not getting any better. We have UKR7.com, which links to ways you can help people in Ukraine. That’s something very near and dear to my heart.

World Central Kitchen is another great organization, started by Chef José Andrés. They work in disaster areas—when a disaster comes through, they show up and help get food and basic services to people much faster than a lot of the big aid agencies. They do amazing work.

There’s the Middle East, Africa, Asia... there’s a lot going on all over the world. There’s also stuff going on in your own neighborhood. It doesn’t have to be a national or international organization—there are always local places that could use your help. If you’re not in a position or mindset to donate, just do something simple. Smile at somebody. Make their day a little more pleasant. You have the ability to make someone’s life a little nicer every time you meet them. Try to take that opportunity.

Remember. One of the best ways you can help yourself is to help others. When you look outside yourself, it changes your perspective. It gives you a different view on the world and makes you realize there’s a lot of good stuff out there—stuff you might overlook if you get too wrapped up in yourself.

So look outside. Make someone’s day a little brighter. Give to one of these organizations. Give to a local one. Do what you can. The world could use a whole lot more light and kindness right now. Not foolish happiness—but truly sincere, helping-people happiness.

As always, thank you for stopping by. If you found something interesting or useful, please pass it along. Please share, subscribe, and hit that like button. And if you see something interesting—great, let me know. And if you don’t, let me know what you’d like to hear instead.

Have a great week. Remember to live the life that you dream of, because that’s the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week at 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com. Thank you.