Behavioral change fails when it requires absolute recantation

Change is hard, but if it requires a person to categorically reject everything they believed, it may be impossible.

Breaking through these attitudes [that are resistant to change] is difficult because “you’re asking someone to give up the values and beliefs at the core of how they see themselves” … You’ll never succeed at getting someone to change their behavior “if, as a prerequisite, you force them to say: Everything I’ve believed until now is wrong…”^[1]

#change #psychology

See also:

• Changing self-identity is a toe-in-the-door
• Constant change requires constant reformation
• It is impossible to teach a man what he thinks he already knows
• It is difficult to make someone understand what their salary depends on them not understanding