Shhh: Don’t speak the truth, it will BACKFIRE !!

Why fake news sustains and sustains consistently?

Why can’t one relish one’s favorite food while running?

Why do people die prematurely of natural causes?

“If you believe very strongly in something, stand up and fight for it.”

This is a famous quote from Roy T Bennett, self-professed, thought leader and author.

Isn’t this a common behavior demonstrated by humans, even when truth, reality, or facts are against one’s own personal beliefs?

“Since time immemorial, wars have been fought, resistance has been built and arguments have escalated, NOT on facts, not on actuality, not on veracity, but — surely on notion, on surmise, on conjectures.”

On August 4, 1961, a young woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy in a hospital at 1611 hours in Bingham Street, Honolulu, US. That child, Barack Hussein Obama, later became the 44th president of the United States.

Having Hussein as his middle name and being or becoming the first President of color, born to a Kenyan father, a substantial number of staunch Republicans opposed to the fact that he was born on US soil or he is Christian. Obama, the first Afro American President of United States, (being the President of US is yet believed to be the most powerful position on the planet, facts and beliefs to change soon) was questioned before elections and throughout his Presidency of two terms on his religious beliefs as well as his birthplace.

This opposition led by Republicans requested the Electoral Office of the United States after the Primaries in which Obama was elected as the Presidential Candidate of Democrats to be disqualified as he was born outside of the US.

Before the Presidential elections in Nov 2008, the Hawaii Department of Health based on Original records made the birth certificate of Obama public. Obama won the elections and was sworn in as the president of the United States of America on 20th Jan 2009. However, the controversy about his religious preferences, his birthplace, and even his citizenship continued to erupt in every forum by a strong and staunch segment of US democracy.

Post the birth certificate was made public by the Health Department in 2008, the non-believers even became more ardent, steadfast, and stout in their approach and a movement emerged from these Obama oppugnants called BIRTHERS.

As the movement to oppose the legitimacy of Presidential elections of Obama picked steam in 2010, it was found ~ 25% of adult Americans doubted the authenticity and accuracy of Obama birth records (as per a poll conducted).

Why this did happen after the Hawaii Department of Health made the records public?

Why did Public disclosure of facts lead to non-believers becoming even more forceful in their beliefs?

Why truth or data or reality was not relied upon in that case & in general?

The backfire Effect — The answer lies in the cognitive bias which humans face on an everyday basis, popularly called the backfire effect.

The backfire effect is a mental or cognitive bias that causes people who encounter evidence that challenges their beliefs and make them reject that evidence and strengthen the stanchion of their original stance.

In essence, the backfire effect simply suggests that showing people evidence that proves that they are wrong is not only ineffective but it can backfire, by causing them to support their original stance more strongly, with more rigor, with more rigidity than they previously did.

The backfire effect is a natural human response to one’s belief system which has been built through the years of one’s life. It’s a subset of Confirmation bias, which enables humans to look for news, data, or arguments which support and confirm their belief system, even though the news or data or statistics they rely on is fake news, a body of charade or full of deceitful claims.

Let’s change gears now and talk about money and wealth.

Several studies have found that it’s nearly impossible to defeat the house. Despite that people, spend millions of dollars and hugely precious time while gambling in Casinos in hope that one day, one can make significant riches from gambling.

Similarly is the case for Stock markets. One knows the fact and enough data points exist, to show that one can never time the markets, one also knows that if one trades continuously in the markets, one succinctly and surely will be worse off than being better off.

One also knows that a broker ends up making more money on every trade and hence more often the broker is well off (monetarily) than the client. The broker ends up driving swanky cars from the incessant buying and selling by the clients which clients believe — one day to work in their favor but happens never.

The only way to beat the system and make significant wealth from the Stock market activity is to stay invested and ride through the ups and downs even when butterflies are flying in one’s stomach.

In the last 18 -20 months, since the arrival of Covid, which led to lockdowns, reduced economic activity, and restrictions, stock markets the world over have surged and performed brilliantly well. The markets during the entire one-and-a-half-year period have shown modest to negligible signs of correction and with every negative news they did continue to soar.

This gush of growth (in stock markets) led many newbies to believe that not only trajectory but the journey, the daily movement of the stock market is only one-sided. Even if someone experienced, showed data of past 100 years of US stock market and its volatility or data of Indian equities of last 42 years, one became more impassioned relying on one’s own limited 18 months experience. And this thus becomes a big caution — sign or a signal to everyone who has not seen or experienced significant volatility or drawdowns in equities till date.

Vaccination is another hot subject where millions of People are opposing the usage and administration of vaccines. Scientific research has given enough data points to substantiate the fact that one has limited options left apart from getting vaccinated if one intends to escape the wrath of the virus. Despite data, unvaccinated people believe and argue voraciously that Vaccination is just a gimmick of making money and it’s an attempt to modify or mutate their genes.

The backfire effect teaches humans something about life as well. Several studies conducted by credible institutions like Harvard and Stanford over the years have proved that at the time of death what people mentioned — what’s most important in life, is happiness, relationships, joy & satisfaction, not the quantum of money one gained, not the pace of growth, not the race of life which one, won.

It’s a simple yet interesting fact that any act, any action, any activity which is done in haste, which may have a targeted milestone, objective, or achievement, which may even give happiness when a milestone is arrived at, lasts no more than a moment. It isn’t everlasting.

If one introduces speed, supernormal pace in any act, experience, or activity, the entire journey becomes an excruciating task rather than pleasure, and just by slowing down, the task, the act, the action, the activity, in itself gives such phenomenal bliss, that the happiness that might come after reaching the target becomes irrelevant.

It’s akin to one driving at a medium speed instead of driving Super-Fast or super slow, which not only saves fuel, energy but also allows one to enjoy nature, environment, and journey.

Think about a few answers here.

Can one relish one’s favorite dish while jogging?

Can one absorb a captivating book, while running?

Can one enjoy one’s favorite song while sprinting?

Thus it’s important to remember that Slow is the Real Fast and have faith in the fact, that Universe has a Life plan for every human being for 120 years.

Don’t let your fuel tank get emptied by driving too fast, because in life’s odyssey there is no refueling.