Belief Inertia
Belief inertia describes resistance to revising familiar views. Sagarin links that resistance to the role belief systems have played in survival.
THE IDEA
Inertia as a lens shows us that beliefs can become habits. Habits are entrenched behaviors, some of which are good, while others are bad.
In Learning from the Octopus, Rafe Sagarin writes that belief systems have an “enormous evolutionary inertia behind them,” explaining that our capacity for belief has been one of our survival mechanisms and that this biological relevance helps explain why beliefs are so resistant to change. Thus, sometimes the inertia of our beliefs hinders us, such as when they make us blind to new opportunities. Or when we dismiss new information or ideas because they don’t fit with what we think we know about the world.
A useful test is to ask what evidence would change a familiar belief. Dismissing a new technology solely because it does not fit an existing view illustrates the problem; rejecting it after examining its limitations need not.
When to use it
Evaluating a new technology investment: recognizing the tendency to dismiss it based on past failures or existing paradigms.
Personal growth: identifying habits of thought that no longer serve your goals and actively seeking disconfirming evidence.
Scientific discovery: overcoming institutional resistance to paradigm-shifting evidence due to collective belief inertia.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Dismissal of the Radio
In a hypothetical early 20th-century discussion, a skeptic rejects radio communication without examining a demonstration because the idea seems impractical. This illustrates resistance to evidence rather than a documented account of experts delaying broadcasting.
The Laptop Computer
Suppose a company dismisses portable computers because its leaders assume customers never need computing away from a desk. Refusing to examine evidence of such demand would illustrate belief inertia.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Can you think of a widely held belief that you've recently questioned, and what prompted that shift?
How might an organization identify when belief inertia is holding back innovation?
What steps can you take to challenge your own entrenched beliefs when evaluating new information?
References
- Learning from the Octopus — Rafe Sagarin (2012)
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Great Mental Models Volume 2 Physics, Chemistry and Biology