THE 'I AM RIGHT' SYNDROME

In a fascinating piece of research published in 2000, the political

psychologist James H. Kuklinski and his colleagues conducted a

survey to document the deficiencies in political knowledge among

American citizens. From a random telephone survey of 1100 Illinois

residents they found that few were well informed about the facts of the

welfare system: only 3 percent got more than half the questions right.

That wasn’t very surprising, but what should be a warning to us all is

that: those holding the least accurate beliefs were the ones expressing

the highest confidence in those beliefs.

This mind-set can be termed the 'I know I’m right' syndrome, a common

human tendency. People don’t know but they are convinced that they

know. This is the greatest hindrance to intellectual development.

When you believe that ‘you know’, while in fact you don’t, you are

depriving yourself of the greatest source of intellectual development,

the spirit of enquiry. Almost all the sciences have been the product of

this spirit. First the spirit of enquiry has to be fostered, only then will it

lead to research and new discoveries.

In the famous story alluded to Isaac Newton, an apple that fell on him led him to wonder and contemplate on the mysterious universe. Soon he understood that the very same force that made the apple fall toward the ground also keeps the moon from falling toward the earth and the earth from falling toward the sun: gravity.

There is an Arabic saying that translates as, 'to say 'I don't know' is one half of knowledge.' This means that when you discover your ignorance about something, you will try to gain knowledge about it.

However, if you believe that you know it all, the result will be a life of

ignorance.

Acknowledge ignorance and then proceed to discover rather than live

in perpetual ignorance with the false belief that 'I know I am right'.