Breaking Out of the Certainty Trap
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- And I don’t see my goal as changing anyone’s mind or getting people to agree. Success is providing people with the tools to advance understanding and foster constructive engagement. In other words, the goal is to live with the disagreement. If we can’t do this, we cannot engage constructively with someone who holds a different view. Many people would probably see this as a worthy goal, so what gets in the way?
- When it comes to controversial topics, certainty may be the one factor more than any other that prevents us from engaging with people who disagree. Certainty in this case refers to a resolute unwillingness to consider the possibility that we might not be right or might not be right in the way that we think we are.
- We are drawn to the Certainty Trap, at least in part, because certainty makes life easier. It requires us to think less. Certainty also tells us whom to empathize with, which gives us a sense of moral clarity. When we apply our understanding of the Certainty Trap and its fallacies, we create space to consider reasons other than hate and ignorance for an opposing position, an approach that goes hand in hand with breaking down binary and overly simplistic thinking.