Psychologists have understood for a long time that we don’t naturally form beliefs based on truth. Instead, we form our beliefs in order to maintain our sense of identity and security in the world.8
Even as recently as the late 2000s, there was a naive belief that if people were only properly informed about what was going on in the world, they would formulate more accurate beliefs and make better decisions. This assumption stubbornly persists today. Media types—especially in politics—think, “If we just give them more information, they’ll change their minds.”
This assumption backfired. People are probably more entrenched in their beliefs today than at any other time in modern history. Which is strange, considering we are constantly exposed to all of the ways in which we are wrong.
The truth is that coping with the nuance of contradictory ideas or experiences is stressful. It requires energy and effort to sit with those seemingly opposite things that are both true. The psychologist Leon Festinger called this “cognitive dissonance” and argued that people would inevitably resolve that dissonance by blindly believing whatever they wanted to believe.
One of the largest cultural trends of the 2010s worldwide has been this trend toward simplicity. It’s reflected in our political discourse, in our news media, and in our entertainment. There’s a reason why Hollywood keeps pumping out eighteen versions of the same Marvel movie. When we watch superhero movies, there’s an obvious right and wrong. You know exactly what’s good in the world and what’s bad. And on top of that, you know that everyone is cheering for the good guys.
It’s a cinematic means of bringing us back to the child-like simplicity that we crave from the world. I’ve written extensively about the current maturity crisis in the world today, and this aversion to overwhelming amounts of complex information is likely one of the biggest culprits.9 It’s also why the ability to learn—i.e., the ability to assess and correct your own mistaken beliefs—is only going to become more valuable in the coming years (see lesson above).
Also, speaking of bad superhero movies…