8.5: Belief Perseveration

There are additional problems with memory that pose obstacles to clear and careful thinking, and we will examine several of them in the remainder of this chapter. Many studies, and much ordinary experience, show that we tend to retain a belief even after our original reasons for thinking it true have been undermined. Such beliefs are so thoroughly entrenched that they are impervious to evidence that would discredit them. This phenomenon is known by the ugly name of belief perseveration. Once something gets into memory, whether it is accurate or not, it can be difficult to get it out.

Belief perseveration occurs in many psychology experiments. If the subjects in certain psychology experiments knew the true purposes of the studies, they might act in ways that would undermine the experiments, so they are often given a false cover story. For example, people in an experiment about conformity might be told that they are in a study about perception. That way, subjects are more apt to behave as they normally would. Once the experiment is over, the experimenter is required to “debrief” the subject, to explain the real purpose of the experiment. But it has been found repeatedly that even when the true purpose of the experiment is explained in detail, many subjects persist in thinking that the earlier account, the false cover story, was right. They are victims of belief perseveration.

Many of our stereotypes are also resistant to change, even after we encounter numerous examples that don’t fit our stereotypes. We will examine some of the reasons our beliefs are resistant to change in later chapters.