“Climate change doesn’t exist, is it the story of a group of actors, are people poor because they don’t want to work and don’t want to take responsibility?Life and eating what I want? This very drastic type of reasoning defines a type of mental pattern that is defined as “aversion to solution”.
We have all found this kind of argument so extreme that it confuses us and, moreover, it almost always generates some despair How can there be people who deny such clear evidence?Even today, to our surprise, there are still denialists convinced of the risks of smoking or taking certain medications.
- It is a phenomenon that has always interested the world of psychology.
- People who oppose some concrete evidence clearly demonstrated by science have always existed and.
- Unfortunately.
- Will continue to exist.
- In recent years.
- In the midst of all the social climate that we live in.
- Are going through.
- The aversion to the solution further increases the polarization between the different political sectors.
In 2014, psychologists Troy Campbell and Aron Kay of the University of Oregon investigated the phenomenon and named it, today we will delve a little deeper into this topic.
A clear example of what aversion to the solution entails is seen in those who deny the impact of climate change, no matter whether sea levels and temperature rise or climate events are increasingly extreme, desertification or loss of certain ecosystems is also irrelevant.
The negativity of climate change is often based on a concrete fact: the proposed solutions to stem its progress are not appreciated. A large part of these include, among others, reducing fossil fuel consumption. Ultimately, it involves a change in industry model, production, and lifestyle.
So if I don’t like the solutions, my reaction will always be to question the problem. The issue of climate change is a matter for alarmists. Not only is a denialist approach adopted, but in many cases these people choose to adopt an offensive or contemptuous attitude towards those who defend the evidence.
The same can be seen in those who, for example, oppose changing their lifestyle or quitting smoking, even after suffering a heart attack. “You must die of something!? They point out, “After all, my father smoked life and died at 95?
The aversion to the solution is a constant for those who do not want to change their habits, for those who see solutions as a threat to their way of life.
Troy Campbell and Aron Kay, the psychologists who coined the term six years ago, explained in their research that, on average, we can find two dynamics in the theory of aversion to solutions.
The first is the most common and the most striking in political contexts, in the United States, for example, it is tradition that the Republican Party has always opposed issues such as actions to contain global warming or the need to ban or regulate the arms market.
This would be contrary to their particular interests, which would facilitate the denial of the problem. On the other hand, the Democratic Party at large remains the social and political core that advocates for a change in these aspects.
Daniel, 15, has been diagnosed with diabetes and refuses to accept the problem, the idea of having to inject insulin or regulate candy consumption leads to despair.
Natalia, 69, has just been diagnosed with an eye disease and her driver’s license will not be renewed, she denies the problem, insists that having the problem in one eye is not a limitation and that she can continue driving.
We could give many other examples of these kinds of behaviors and reactions that people apply when they don’t like possible strategies to deal with a problem, we don’t like them because they change the way we live and, given that, it’s inevitable to feel fear, anger and frustration.
Aversion to the solution is more common than we think, however, it remains a mechanism that, in many cases, hinders our coexistence, our ability to move forward as a society and be able to see the same problems act together.
Behind each glance there will always be special interests, but being able to put them in perspective from time to time can allow us to conclude the necessary agreements with which we all win, let us take that into account.