Resistance to Belief Change: Limits of Learning

This book examines the human proclivity to resist changing our beliefs. Drawing on psychological, neurological, and philosophical research, and integrating topics as wide ranging as emotion, cognition, social (and physical) context, and learning theory, Lao and Young explore why this resistance to change impedes our learning and progression. They also suggest that failure to adapt our beliefs to available and informed evidence can incur costs that may be seen in personal growth, politics, science, law, medicine, education, and business. Resistance to Belief Change explores the various manifestations of resistance, including overt, discursive, and especially inertial forms of resistance. As well as the influential factors that can impact upon them, the book also examines how the self-directed learner, as well as teachers, may structure the learning experience to overcome resistance and facilitate progressive and adaptive learning. Lao and Young find that the impediments to learning and resistance to change are far more prevalent and costly than previously suggested in research, and so this book will be of interest to a range of people in cognitive development, social psychology, and clinical and educational psychology.

About the Author

Joseph R. Lao earned his Ph.D. in the field of cognitive development from Teachers College, Columbia University. As an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, and a full-time Senior Lecturer at Hunter College, in the City University of New York, and elsewhere, Dr. Lao has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Experimental Psychology, Human Development, Learning, and Cognitive Development for more than 20 years.

Jason Young earned his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Minnesota. As a full-time Associate Professor at Hunter College, in the City University of New York, and elsewhere, Professor Young has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in social psychology over the past 30 years, including Introduction to Social Psychology, Research Methods in Social Psychology, the Psychology of Prediction, and The Psychology of Attitudes and Persuasion.