Mental Fixed Point

This is an idea I had. I don't know if it is original or how it relates to cognitive science. You could say I'm again feeling a bit PeterMerel. So read on with care.

Hey! I wouldn't say any of this twaddle! I'd say completely different twaddle! --the real PeterMerel

I was MetaThinking about thinking, memes and how beliefs and opinions come to be. We often get stuck with some idea and cannot get out of it. Or rather thinking and acting on the idea or concept causes evidence to be interpreted (intentionally or unintentionally) as supporting the idea.

This seems to be a general pattern and occurs on small opinions, but can become all encompassing as in a DogmaticFallacy.

Examples are:

I call this MentalFixedPoint, because Individual input may move the opinion a little bit away from the MentalFixedPoint, but the collective effect of the "bias" on all input will keep the opinion/belief at least within a maximum distance of the MentalFixedPoint, provided the input itself is not itself permanently biased into some other direction.

There can be multiple (more or less) orthogonal MentalFixedPoints at once, e.g. once can think positively of everyone (and thusly get positive feedback), and also think that OOP is bad.


See also: SmartPeopleStuckWithBadIdeas, DogmaticFallacy. ConspiracyTheory, TautologicalDefinitionFallacy, ParableOfTheTwoVillages, SelfSealingBelief, FeedbackEffect


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