Home → 2003/10/28, 23h21
Stubbornness
While on the subject of commitment and consistency, I read that when commitment is public, more effort is put into remaining consistent with this commitment (Deutsch and Gerard, 1955.)
First suggested reason : changing our mind after the fact may be seen as weak, easily influenced, or not stable (Baumeister, 1982.) As second cause, another study suggests that once we have made a public commitment, we come to believe it more (Schlenker, Dlugolecki, & Doherty, 1994.)
This pattern makes me wonder: As more and more people produce their own public weblog where they express their opinions about anything, aren't we going to live in a world of stubborns? I guess that the popularity of a weblog will influence the level of stubbornness of its author.
As I read posts from popular writers, I have often been wondering how they could have become so sure about the opinions they expressed. But with this social pattern handy, it becomes possible that their certainty and consistency increases after the fact, as more texts get written and published.
Comments (2)
On an unrelated topic, I think this is the reasoning behind the act of getting married, or mariage. You commit publicly, apparently making you more responsable to make your relationship work or put effort into "remaining consistent" with your decision to get married. I like that "remaining consistent" a real nice way of getting people to swallow "Commitment"
On 2003/10/29 at 14h52, from fred
Believe it or not, I erased a line about this before posting. Not sure why... But I could not agree more.
On 2003/10/29 at 15h23, from Claude