Examples Of Belief Perseverance's Prominent Role

Belief Perseverance’s Prominent Role
Natalie Jimenez
Florida International University

Belief Perseverance’s Prominent Role Belief perseverance is a powerful force that causes many to be subjective instead of objective. It is known to be the tendency in which people stick to their original beliefs even when others provide them with information that goes against everything they originally believed. It is also known to be one of social psychology’s most dependable phenomena and it tends to use invalidated information (Guenther & Alicke, 2008). As humans, it is very difficult for us to admit that sometimes the things we believe in are not necessarily true; it is in our human nature to always want to be right and better than others.

This has been proven countless of times throughout history, for example; Justin Bieber behaving recklessly or Michael Jackson being accused of having relationships with children and both still maintaining a large loyal fan base. A study conducted by Bui (2014) was designed to test and answer the question “do participants feelings and beliefs of their favorite celebrities change when they are presented with negative news about them?”. The study also depicted another type of belief perseverance also known as “emotional belief perseverance.” In the end, their beliefs about the celebrities changed but it depended on where the source of information came from. Although their beliefs changed, their feelings did not (Bui,

In the study conducted by McFarland, Cheam and Buehler (2006), Charlotte, one of the participants, was asked to complete a test that was used to measure her intellectual ability. Prior to the test, the researchers stressed that although the test was measuring intellectual ability, it was not a true indicator of one’s actual intellectual ability. Although stressed as not being a true indicator, Charlotte’s score which landed her in the 30th percentile made her question her intelligence and created doubt on whether she was college-worthy. This clearly portrays the power that belief perseverance has on us as humans. Once we believe something to be true, changing our minds is rather impossible. In essence, belief perseverance has a major impact in all our lives from politics, to celebrities, and to how we portray ourselves. It is very powerful in the sense that it may make us feel incompetent or blind us from the truth when it is presented to us. Belief perseverance may also have a great impact on future research if one is subjective rather than objective because of ignorance towards factual information. It will always have a prominent role in our everyday lives whether we like it or not, but self-awareness is the first step towards eliminating the powerful