I was watching a science video in class as a kid (maybe 25 yrs ago now) when the interviewer asked the scientist how he felt about his experiment proving he was wrong. I remember he said “I LOVE IT”.
One of the things I enjoyed about science experiments growing up was non-intuitive findings. This is when you form a hypothesis based on our perception of the world today but the results are radically different than that expectation.
When that happens, of course the first thing you do is validate you did the experiment correctly, but when the results are confirmed, you’re left questioning your assumptions; your likely incorrect assumptions.
The reason the scientist in that middle school video loved being proven wrong was that he understood it was a chance to move to more correct thinking. He learned to become comfortable with being wrong. He learned to embrace that feeling as progress.
That is not a natural state; evolution rewards correct intuitions and ignores or fatally punishes incorrect ones. Think about it. When you are right about danger, you lived. When you were wrong, you died. The result, our ancestors learned to trust their intuition, not because its infallible but because we survived. Challenging your intuition historically was dangerous. But we live in an age where we can safely experiment without being eaten by lions, tigers, and bears.
I don’t think human nature has changed in 25 years, but I do think the internet has given us the ability to find our echo chambers instead of forcing us to entertain alternative ideas, assumptions, and interpretations. What makes me a little sad is that this information age gives us the ability to increase our access to alternative ideas, assumptions, and interpretations but not the ability to appreciate how uncomfortable being wrong feels. That must be a learned behavior.
Everyday we see people trying to make sense of the world around them asking questions that challenge someone’s narrative. Its easy to challenge someone elses narrative, but I encourage you to find the narrative you subscribe to and challenge it.