How can we become narrow-minded people without realising it?

In science, whenever we observe a novel event, we start sharpening our brains to decode it.

We make a couple more observations related to that event, and try to get a reason for it.

It was also the same with the previous generation of scientists. They observed various new phenomena and they gathered as much information as possible to get the accurate reason behind them.

But there was a problem with the human mind.

In the past days, when there was limited information at hand and more time was required for getting new information, scientists had to make the best possible theories (i.e., explanations) with whatever data was available.

It was like a competition, where the scientist with the best theory would win.

This "winner" scientist, should be able to explain the data from future experiments with the theory.

Consider that, a new experiment happened later, but the results were not explained by the theory of our scientist, then the theory was to be changed, and again the competition started.

Sounds easy, right? Surprisingly, it was not.

Whenever the scientists were giving out their theories and "winning" over other scientists, it triggered dopamine, which gave them a feeling of pleasure.

Once won, the scientists fight hard every next time to win so that they felt the pleasure of winning, again and again. 

This is very similar to the effect of substance abuse. Once your mind understands that the substance gives you pleasure, it repeatedly asks for that experience, demanding more intake, and the cycle continues...

If you see, here, with our scientists, the substance is the win of their theory. If they need to have continuous intake, they need to win continuously. Which meant, they could never assume their theory was failing!

The result? They were too stubborn to change their theories even though it was very obvious and neglected the new experiment results which contradicted their beliefs (at this point in time, the 'possible explanation' of a phenomenon became their belief).

If we observe, the "I-stick-to-what-I-think" was not limited to science.

Anyone who has been believing something for a very long time, if suddenly given an opposite case, may not be able to accept it. It feels as if their world were falling apart...

The best example is the elder people in each generation of a family. It's just becoming a narrow-minded person without realising that we are becoming one.

Finally, whenever you are given a piece of new information, think about it without any biases so that you can take a better decision about whether to change yourself or not.

Wishing you to be an open-minded person till your last breath, signing off...

(Inspired by the book "Brilliant Blunders" by Maio Livio)

P.S. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment if there's anything wrong present in the post and help us reach 'The Eternal Thing'..!