Why do we think we are right even when we are wrong

                                          

We always believe that we were right at most times of our lives. Whenever we had to make decisions we took the right ones, did right in our relationships and always chose the right path.

It is good to believe in oneself, but thinking that we are right even when we are wrong is a blunder that we do numerous times in our life, sometimes which even costs us or someone else a bomb and we don’t even realize it, living with the fact that we were right.

So why does this happens?
Well here is the answer to it.

Our thinking is motivated by our beliefs and our actions are inspired from what we believe in.
We tend to consider a piece of information, a thought, a belief, a situation or thinking, either as a friend or as an enemy.

We defend the side we consider as our friend and try to shoot down the other.

If things are the way we like, we are happy but if things turn the other way round, we are angry and frustrated and tag them as something bad or even worst.
Some simple examples are -:
Say in sports if a referee gives decision in the favor of our team we are content but if the opposition team gets the benefit of doubt we question his decision.
If Supreme Court passes a law which according to us is correct, we hail the court but if it is the other way round we curse it.

Our judgment is highly influenced by our fears, limitations and what we have seen or experienced personally. Our thought process is not broad but is restricted to our own lives.

We don’t want to get out of our comfort zone, get our ego hurt or show consent for something which can prove our thinking or belief wrong, that’s the fear we always carry in our mind and hence rather than going into the depth and understanding the situations, we just consider that right which doesn’t contradicts our judgment.

The scariest part is we think we are objective and fair minded but still tend to ruin life of an innocent person.  

So how to think rationally?

Below points might help -:

We need to cut through our biases, prejudices and beliefs and get to the real truth and meaning of a situation or thing even if it is unpleasant or inconvenient for us.

Rather than choosing a side and being headstrong about it, we should be open to test our beliefs and judgment and change our mindset if it is on the wrong side.

We need to consider the fact that we can be wrong at times and it doesn’t make us small or stupid.

And finally we should yearn to clearly see the world as possibly as we can rather than yearning for our own prejudices.