I recently was confronted with the question “Do you consider yourself open minded?”

Recent surveys suggest that people think they are open minded by self report. But when these claims were put through behavioral measures, the behavior did not manage the claim of open mindedness.

The measure of open mindedness is one’s ability to change position when confronted with evidence to the contrary of one’s held belief. I contend this concept of open mindedness is at the root of today’s current problem in the United States, possibly other countries.

As I started to pose a question, I realized that my question would sound like a “got you question.” Like an attorney would ask “just answer yes or no.”

Do you believe that laws should be obeyed?

An alternative might be, Do you believe disobeying the law should have consequences? The word believe is troublesome because your belief and another’s belief might conflict before you answer the question. For example, one cultural belief is to cut off your hand if you steal while another culture might believe in restitution. So your cultural belief will influence your response to the question. So I think one can safely say the question must be reworded to eliminate your cultural or religious belief. But can one adequately eliminate this bias.

It is a bias because your belief will bring a host of issues that is not intended in a question about open mindedness. The intent in the question is can you accept that the opinion of another may be correct when compared to your opinion. One would have to eliminate an alternative narrative and accept the question as is, without debate, if the facts are correct.

Asking if you believe in God is the type of question that does not bode well to showing open mindedness. I suppose one could respond with I hear your belief, I am open minded to it, but I don’t agree.

So my question is, do you believe that if one disobeys the law, that person should face consequences established for the act?