I have been trying to understand how people come to their opinions. Pure logic and impartiality are rare - largely independent of intelligence. Emotions constantly distort thinking in one direction or another. Fear of something in particular does this. Often subliminally, but you can see it very well if you pay attention. In discussions, I can sometimes see, as if under a microscope, how someone fails to think ahead at a particular point, but always turns back to what is pleasant. And, of course, the appearance of rationality has to be maintained.
A good
self-test for impartiality is to be able to put yourself in the shoes of all
the players. This is the way to get to know the widest psychological range.
This includes researching and analyzing circumstances, priorities and
probabilities. Priorities and probabilities are the most important because they
are the most susceptible to emotional distortion. Another part is to maintain a
conscious distance and, from that distance, to constantly check oneself for mistakes,
such as wrong basic assumptions or confusing the levels of the overall event.
In addition: What is the goal? Is it to find the truth - even at the expense of
previous beliefs - or to strengthen the opinion in which you have already
invested a lot?
Gut
feelings alone are very susceptible to manipulation. Even without manipulation,
one is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. If gut feelings are to be used,
then at least they should be used correctly: as unemotionally as possible, from
a depth to which one otherwise pays little attention. That, in turn, leads to
empathy and the illumination of all perspectives and to constant
self-examination. Even with this, no one is error-free, but it should
significantly reduce the error rate.
