Being Open-Minded and True to Yourself
Being open-minded can be difficult, especially when the ideas or opinions you hear seem to go against your values or morals. Someone says something that, on its surface, sounds selfish, callous, or shortsighted, and your natural reaction is to disagree vehemently. But part of being open-minded is knowing the whole story. What is the backdrop for what you’re hearing? People may be misinformed or misguided. Many people feel disenfranchised and are desperate to find an ideology or a movement that resonates with them. You may vehemently disagree with what someone believes or says, but it’s helpful to dig deeper and find the circumstances that have led to their perspective.
Open-mindedness is simple, but it’s not easy
At its core, open-mindedness is about avoiding snap judgments based on your perspective. But when you are faced with a situation where you’d like to be open-minded but have an emotional reaction to something someone says, snap judgments are easy and feel natural. You’re defending truth and righteousness! That’s the easy route—and it’s closed-minded. Exploring a person’s perspective and why they hold it, while acknowledging your own emotional state, is hard. But it’s so much more rewarding. You may find that the person you’re talking to is stubborn and intractable in their stance. That’s fine, but at least you aren’t being that way. You can listen and consider what they are saying. You can explore where the person got their information and what drives them to gravitate toward their perspective. It can be incredibly challenging, but so meaningful and enlightening.
Context matters
If you react to something someone says without having some context for why they’re saying it, you are likely not responding to what really matters in the encounter. If someone is desperately trying to feed their family, working multiple jobs, and feeling invisible to people in power, it’s easy to look for any voice that resonates. It’s easy to be taken in by information that says that others are taking what is rightfully theirs, even if that information comes from someone who, in reality, is not helping them at all. If someone is struggling to make ends meet and feels inadequate, overwhelmed, and frustrated, arguing over where those feelings lead is almost irrelevant. They aren’t going to change their stance because you provide a logical rebuttal of their stance. You need to address the underlying emotional context.
The truth depends on the source
Facts are facts, right? Not anymore. Years ago, the news was the version of current events that everyone heard and trusted. There were consequences if a news organization reported something that was found to be untrue. Information now is entirely different. So many news sources, social media, and even expert opinions are geared toward a particular political leaning or other agenda. People get the news they want, and they don’t hear opposing viewpoints. They also don’t always hear the truth. In 2000, Fox News was sued by Dominion Voting Systems for knowingly promoting false claims about the 2020 presidential election. Fox claimed that reasonable people would understand that the hosts’ statements were “loose, figurative, or hyperbolic.” [1] There are news sources on the other side of the political fence that skew their reporting as well. To trust the news, you have to be a fact checker and researcher. But many, if not most, people are happy hearing what they want to hear.
So when you hear someone say something that you know to be untrue, remember that the world gets information from multiple sources, and that they may not be intentionally duplicitous. It’s also essential to confirm your own information. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible; if you fact-checked or researched every piece of information you heard, that’s all you would ever do. The best you can do is use common sense and stay open to others’ information until you know otherwise.
Staying true to yourself
Being open-minded is crucial to evolving as people and as a society. However, being open-minded doesn’t mean agreeing with or even considering opinions or actions that go against your moral or ethical code. While you may explore someone else’s perspective and your opinion may change, you’ll still have a core moral compass that guides your worldview, thought process, and actions. You can listen to someone else with an open mind, but ultimately, you have to fall back on your values when reaching conclusions.
Even while staying open-minded in the best spirit of the moment and being sensitive to context, you still need to be true to yourself in your interactions.
[1] Froomkin, Dan. 2003. “Fox News Isn’t News.” NBC News.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/fox-news-study-comparing-fox-cnn-highlights-cable-tvs-harm-rcna23620 (accessed 11/4/2025)
Artwork by fran_kie
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