Folks can change:
My efforts, for some now the prime focus of my life, have been to get people to recognize what I regard as a law of nature that has already been published in excellent refereed journals. Nobody else has put it all together and nobody else makes much of it. But I don’t think there was ever anything in science for which the documentation was so strong that was rejected, nor has this been; it has simply been ignored.
Of course there is no point in making something public unless there is a reaction of some sort. People are going to have to change. When I corner some hapless soul and force the facts on him (or her) the reaction is often, “Maybe you’re right. But you are never going to sell it. You won’t convince anybody. They won’t accept it. If they don’t believe it – and they don’t – they aren’t going to start.” At that point I generally thank the person and drop the topic.
But now there is a new ray of hope. (Jordi Quoldbach et al. The End of History Illusion SCIENCE vol. 339 no. 6115 January 4, 20113 page 96) When I first saw the title I thought that “history” referred to world history. It refers to personal history. That makes more sense. I don’t think anybody believes the world is not going to continue to change.
What they did was to interview people about their personalites, values and preferences both current and previous. What they found was that their subjects reported that these things had changed in the past but were unlikely to change in the future. The discrepancy was greatest for values and greater for younger people, but it was consistent.
So at least according to that evidence people can change more than they expect to change. I am pretty sure that this applies to other people, maybe more to other people. People are more adaptable than they are given credit for. So maybe they will change after all.
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