Beliefs shape our world, driving our actions and opinions in ways we often don’t realize. Christopher Hampton summed this up perfectly: “I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they falsely believe to be the truth.”
Imagine a politician who knows that every word he speaks is a twist of the truth. He relies on a gullible public, who will accept his words without question, allowing the political machine to keep rolling without interruption. And just like that, the loop of opinion is set in motion, with all the pieces falling into place. The politician’s words, no matter how distorted, find their way into the people’s minds, ensuring that the cycle of manipulation continues unchecked.
Why Opinion is Needed?
Opinions collide everywhere in your daily life to be on top. Imagine a world where every opinion you encountered was the absolute truth, with no contradictions, and no debates. It’s hard to picture, isn’t it? Our lives are shaped by the opinions we hold, from choosing who leads our country to deciding whom we spend our lives with, and even the subjects we study. Every decision we cling to stems from beliefs deeply rooted in us, passed down through generations, or formed by our experiences. These opinions aren’t just thoughts—they’re the forces that shape our future.
In 1859, Charles Darwin introduced the world to his Theory of Evolution. He likened life to a tree, with all species branching out from common ancestors. Darwin discovered that species evolved over generations, gradually changing and sometimes even becoming entirely new species.
While this was a groundbreaking discovery, it clashed head-on with deeply held religious beliefs. The idea that humans and other species evolved over time contradicted the Biblical belief that all creatures were created by God as they are. This collision of ideas led to widespread rejection, especially by the British and American churches. England’s top Church official, Henry Cardinal Manning, went so far as to call Darwin’s theory “a brutal philosophy,” claiming it denied the existence of God.
Even decades after Darwin introduced his theory, people were still not ready to abandon their long-held beliefs. The resistance to Darwin’s theory was so strong that in 1925, John Scopes, a high school teacher in Tennessee, was put on trial for teaching evolution. This famous trial highlighted just how deeply rooted and difficult to change these traditional beliefs were.
Information Disguise
Any new Information has never been a single and independent event. It always had its contradicting or complimenting partners before it showed up to the world. Belief it will shatter or Belief it will cultivate decides its homecoming.
Ben Franklin said, “If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason. Incentives fuel stories that justify people’s actions and beliefs, offering comfort even when they’re doing things they know are wrong and believe things they know aren’t true.”
Human race has always had great covet for information. It wanted to know more, have a cause theory to any effect and it made people turn to supernatural explanations for phenomena that they did not understand, primarily due to the absence of scientific knowledge or the complexity of the natural world.
Supernatural beliefs offered psychological comfort and a sense of control in uncertain situations. By attributing events to the actions of gods or other supernatural forces, people were able to make sense of the occurrences. The human propensity for storytelling further facilitated the spread of supernatural beliefs. The same beliefs that made our ancestors feel command can’t be discarded easily.
The craving for information has led to the point where we feel compelled to know and discuss opinions but unfortunately not always in light of rationality. We may now laugh at beliefs of history when people believed tomatoes were poisonous and could cause death but truth is our beliefs have just become sophisticated. We ditched those old misconceptions only to cling to new ones just as misguided.
Belief First, Facts Later
Michael Shermer, a psychology professor and founder of Skeptic magazine, explains that we create our beliefs first and then hunt for evidence to back them up. Once we’ve settled on a belief, we rationalize it with explanations[link]. According to Shermer, we’re far from the rational thinkers the Enlightenment portrayed; instead, we let our biases shape our beliefs and then justify them, often ignoring contradictory evidence.
In medieval Europe, black cats were associated with witchcraft and bad luck. The fear of black cats led to the mass killing of black cats which also resulted in ecological consequences. It is speculated that the reduction in the cat population contributed to the increase in the population of plague-carrying rats, indirectly exacerbating the spread of the Black Plague across Europe.
Belief & Action: Two Best Friends
It’s not only about holding belief, if it was only that, belief was only innocuous but it always leads to some kind of action. It’s the value and rationality of belief that will determine the action.
Edison’s belief was, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” What if he had had the opposite belief? He might have given up on idea of viable electric bulb that lights up the world of today. Edison had more than 2500+ failed attempts before he could actually find a sustained filament that could glow in a vacuum after electricity passes it.
While working on Macintosh, Bud Tribble, software engineer described Steve Jobs presence as “Reality Distortion Field”, means Jobs could convince anyone of practically anything. If not for that Personal computers wouldn’t have been what they are now.
The ingrained belief of Hitler that anti-Semitism was core reason for Germany’s economic woes and societal problems led to cascading effect resulting in WWII, which became the reason for 70 million deaths.
Throughout history, voids left by unrealized discoveries were filled by visionary minds who dared to challenge the status quo. These individuals, often seen as stubborn or even mad, presented ideas that turned the world upside down. Some voids, however, still remained unchallenged, for beliefs that crumbled under criticism and discoveries stifled. Steve Jobs described, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Giving Power to Belief
The world we live in today is shaped by a spectrum of past and present beliefs. Information has never been filtered as thoroughly as it is now, often reinforcing existing beliefs rather than challenging them. Ideas, whether old or new, are rarely far from what we already hold true. The opinions we debate and uphold serve to maintain our sense of identity, reflecting our need to align with familiar beliefs and values.
Given that information often serves to protect our values and beliefs, it’s challenging to argue that the flood of information will break beliefs rooted in centuries of tradition. Instead, it often reinforces them. People rarely engage with opposing viewpoints, preferring content that aligns with their beliefs, thus creating echo chambers. This division into ideological sections keeps boundaries firm and wide, with each group isolated in its perspective. Today’s society is well aware of this divide and the challenge it presents to open dialogue and understanding.
Cambridge Analytica story is a modern cautionary tale of data manipulation. By secretly harvesting data from 87 million Facebook users, they created a psychological profile of each user. Instead of outright endorsing Trump or Brexit, they subtly evoked emotions, primarily fear, to influence voting behavior. Users were bombarded with carefully curated information that reinforced their existing beliefs and stoked their fears, ensuring they saw what they wanted and what they feared, steering their decisions without their knowledge.
A study in the Independent reveals that people spend nearly 6 hours 35 minutes daily on screens, with children aged 8-12 spending 4-6 hours and teenagers up to 9 hours.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risk Report, India ranks highest for the risk of misinformation. Polarization and media distrust lead citizens to believe misinformation about groups they see as antagonistic.
It’s Stifling, Time to Unchain
Information and misinformation are two sides of the same coin, always intertwined. Often, half-truths shape beliefs, only to be challenged by new, compelling narratives. To break entrenched misconceptions, a stronger belief must emerge, driven by fresh incentives. Let’s go to the French Revolution to know this.
France in the late 18th century ruled by King Louis XVI. The divine right of King asserted a belief that monarch’s authority to rule comes directly from God.
The monarchy’s excessive spending and costly wars were draining the treasury while common people were taxed heavily and facing bread shortages, growing increasingly discontented.
In 1789, faced with a dire financial crisis, Louis XVI convened the assembly, Estates-General, representing the three estates of French society: the clergy, the nobility, and the common people to sanction new taxes but instead triggered a surge of widespread outrage among the common people. It marked the moment when people broke their belief in the king’s ability to rule fairly and protect them.
In 1792, the monarchy was abolished, and Louis XVI was later executed, marking the definitive end of absolute monarchy in France. This French Revolution exemplifies how deeply entrenched beliefs can be challenged and dismantled when they no longer serve the well-being of the majority.
The belief in a divinely sanctioned monarchy crumbled because it no longer provided any real or perceived benefits to the vast majority of the population. Emotions of divine right which were under protection of commoners became no more than a burden and freedom from it meant new seeds of belief to be sown.
Harry Truman said, “The next generation never learns anything from the previous one until it’s brought home with a hammer. I’ve wondered why the next generation can’t profit from the generation before, but they never do until they get knocked in the head by experience.”
No matter what the beliefs people hold and how strongly the politician or any person of influence will water them, if the incentive is not serving the individual, the person itself will break the shackle and raise a new sun.
Humans are emotional creatures, and emotions are great beasts of nature, not to be tamed by any rationality. How much rationality will try to get its foot in the door, it will always fail to lead the room.