To enjoy the benefits of being open-minded, work on building this ability. There are a few different aspects to open-mindedness:. The opposite of open-minded is closed-minded or dogmatic. People who are more closed-minded are usually only willing to consider their own viewpoints and are not receptive to other ideas.
Even if you consider yourself a fairly open-minded person, there are probably certain topics on which you take a much harder stance: Experiences that you are passionate about or social issues, for example.
Having convictions can be great, but strong belief does not negate an open mind. Being open-minded means having the ability to consider other perspectives and trying to be empathetic to other people, even when you disagree with them. Of course, open-mindedness has its limits. It does not imply that you must sympathize with every ideology. But making an effort to understand the factors that might have led to those ideas can be helpful in finding ways to persuade people to change their minds.
Being more open-minded means enjoying some useful and powerful benefits. Open-mindedness helps you:. There are a number of things that can affect how open- or closed-minded a person is. While some of the factors that go into determining how open-minded you are might be inborn characteristics, others can be cultivated to help develop a more open mindset.
In the five-factor model of human personality , openness to experience is one of the five broad dimensions that make up human personality. This personality trait shares many of the same qualities with open-mindedness, such as being willing to consider new experiences and ideas and engaging in self-examination.
Research suggests that people expect experts to be more dogmatic about their area of expertise. When people feel that they are more knowledgeable or skilled in an area than other people, they are less likely to be open-minded. Researchers have found that giving participants false positive or false negative feedback about their performance on a task influenced how closed-minded they were about considering an alternative political opinion.
People have varying levels of comfort when dealing with uncertainty. Too much ambiguity leaves people feeling uncomfortable and even distressed. Dogmatism is sometimes an attempt to keep things simpler and easier to understand. By rejecting alternative ideas that might challenge the status quo, people are able to minimize uncertainty and risk —or at least their perception of risk.
Older research does support this idea, suggesting that people who are closed-minded are less able to tolerate cognitive inconsistencies. Learning how to be more open-minded is possible, but it can be a bit of a challenge. In many ways, our minds are designed to view concepts as wholes. We develop an idea or a category of knowledge, which the psychologist Jean Piaget referred to as a schema.
As we come across new information, we tend to want to sort it into one of our existing schemas in a mental process known as assimilation. In this instance, we have to adjust our understanding of the world in a process known as accommodation.
Essentially, we have to change how we think in order to deal with this new information. Still not sure, try it yourself and use a Fitbit or Oura ring to track your sleep quality. I used to think Airbnbs were amazing and were eventually going to make hotels go out of business. Read our post about its pros and cons of hotels vs Airbnbs and let us know what you think. Interested in the podcast?
Listen to the Skeptoid one here. And ask yourself this: When was the last time you changed your mind? When did you change your mind about an opinion or belief that matters? This post on how to be more open-minded will help you find the next steps to take today. How to Be More Open-Minded Today Warm your mind up for opening Plant seeds of doubt in your brain Do some blind-spotting Change something other than your mind Do a blind taste test Go but-less Get some perspective Ask yourself better questions Learn tactics to keep your mind open.
What if I get sick or something? Good Choice. Independent Thinking. Be Your Best. Book Summaries. Climate change is way more serious than I used to believe and Kim and I need to make long-term decisions, like where we live, based on its effects. Wearing my underwear two days in a row is not a good idea. Method 9. Hate going to noisy restaurants?
Make a dinner date and see how it goes. Afraid of meeting new people? Find a way to do as many as you can. Method Pre-judging someone can close off a relationship before it starts.
Try to keep your opinion neutral until you actually chat with someone and get to know them more. If they seem standoffish, they might just be anxious or shy. Try to seek it out. Learn something new from everyone you meet. You may hear some really interesting details and will learn something new. Broaden your friendship horizons to get different perspectives. Make friends from work, your ceramics class, your favorite neighborhood bar, or from different classes in school as well.
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Not Helpful 0 Helpful 0. Sandra Possing Life Coach. Sandra Possing. Always keep calm. Ask them questions like, " Why do you think that? Remember to be positive. Negativity may trigger the person to argue even more. Not Helpful 2 Helpful You have to be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone. See if you can find an open-minded friend that might be willing to try new things with you. It is much easier if you have someone doing the new thing with you.
Not Helpful 0 Helpful Just take a deep breath, and think on what you want to say, then speak. Not Helpful 8 Helpful 5. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Try teaching other people about your ideas instead of arguing about them. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Related wikiHows How to. How to. Here are four methods you can take to be more open-minded:. Sometimes being open to something new just requires talking through the situation with someone else.
Brown suggests an approach used in counseling called Motivational Interviewing, in which you talk about your concerns or struggles with a new idea to someone who simply listens and repeats back what they hear. The process helps you hear your own reasons for resistance, gaining some objectivity about the situation.
Instead, train your brain to reply to unhelpful thoughts with more realistic statements, reframing the situation. Then rewrite your reaction, using a more balanced statement. Another way to be more open-minded is to add more experiences to your schema, suggests Jeffrey Gardere , psychologist and professor of basic sciences at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York City.
Watch and read them both.
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