clipped from: www.spring.org.uk   

When you change your attitude about something, do you know why? Psychologists have argued that the inner workings of our minds are largely hidden away from us. One aspect of this is the surprising finding that people are often unaware when they have changed their attitudes.

So, these are the bare facts:

  • Objectively, the discussion changed people’s minds about the issue. Some people’s opinions did a complete U-turn.
  • Despite this no one actually experienced the discussion as changing their mind, rather people claimed it only reinforced their previous opinion.
  • People were plain wrong about their opinions before the discussion, sometimes dramatically, and it had nothing to do with forgetting. Remember that control participants could recall their previous attitudes correctly.

    • What’s going on?

    As a result, when people were asked to recall their attitudes before the discussion they simply accessed their current attitude and then assumed it had been the same all along.