The Backfire Effect: How More Effective Goal-tending Empowers Us for a Winning New Year

It happens. We convince ourselves we need more goals to bring us closer to what we perceive as a successful series of better outcomes.

Whenever we set goals, regardless of when they occur, do we spend much time considering why we feel motivated or compelled to do so?

Although we have adopted cultural norms that suggest new years mean new goals, this may not be the most productive undertaking for successful outcomes.

Enter goal-shedding for a lighter, freer new year.

Yes, fewer established goals and targeted objectives can bring us closer to a better experience of life.

It’s easy to believe that consistency and perseverance are the most viable routes to successful outcomes.

That’s precisely why we believe it. It reinforces our past experiences rather than making us available for new opportunities. However, this logical fallacy often backfires.

Belief perseverance, also known as the ‘backfire effect’ or conceptual conservatism, describes how we continue to hold onto established beliefs even when faced with clear, contradictory evidence. We tend to prioritize our initial conclusions and resist changing our minds, even when it might be in our best interest to do so.

Preconceived goals often hold us back from being more open and available for potential and possibility. Therefore, over-goaling can be a closely related phenomenon of compulsive hyper-achievement.

Despite being beneficial, conditioned and persistent beliefs may hinder our ability to be more fluid, open, and available in our daily interactions since they are based on cemented automatic habits.

Belief perseverance results from four interacting factors: causal thinking, cognitive dissonance, ego defense mechanisms, and confirmation bias.

In causal thinking, we attribute causes and effects to our beliefs, for instance, denying global warming because human activities do not impact the ozone layer.

New research shows that we remember causal explanations independently from their original claim. This means that even when we learn our beliefs are wrong, we still hold tightly onto our explanations because we stored them so deeply in our memory.

Cognitive dissonance posits that humans desire to maintain consistency in their beliefs and behaviors.

When confronted with information that challenges our internal consistency, we fall into an uncomfortable state of dissonance. To reduce our discomfort, we often discount the new information and bolster our original ideas, strengthening belief perseverance.

The confirmation bias is our tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms our preconceptions. Once we hold a belief, we are more likely to notice and remember instances that support that belief and ignore evidence to the contrary.

Our beliefs often become intertwined with the constructs of self-identity. We may feel like recognizing that a long-held belief might be incorrect as a personal failure, leading to feelings of inadequacy or emotional insecurity. As a protective mechanism, ego filters may prevent the acceptance of such contradictory evidence to preserve our self-constructs.

Dr. Carol Tavris and Dr. Elliot Aronson, in their book Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), explain how the need to preserve our self-concept can lead to self-justification and a strengthening of our original beliefs.

When individuals hold steadfast onto beliefs even after they are disproven, it can profoundly impact personal decision-making and societal progress.

When clinging to outdated or incorrect beliefs, individuals may limit their opportunities, strain relationships, and become resistant to new perspectives.

Professionally, belief and perseverance can hinder innovation and lead to wrong decisions. In public discourse, it can lead to polarization and prevent the synthesis of different viewpoints.

Recognizing the importance of belief perseverance underscores the need for construct-awareness, open-mindedness, and a commitment to continuous learning.

Therefore, by allowing for adaptation in our rapidly evolving world, we hinder adaptation as we are unable to update our beliefs.

In conclusion, It’s healthy to question if designing new goals at the beginning of a year or at any other time serves a valid purpose or creates a more meaningful intention. Sometimes shedding old goals or resisting the urge to initiate a new undertaking is the more productive route.

Our goals become more impactful as a result.

Sometimes, less is more, especially when it comes to our annual planning sessions and establishing our aspirations. We empower our targeted actions when the motivational factors and intentions are genuine. Is now the right time for some annual hashtag#goalshedding?