How to be more tolerant: 5 practical tips

Guidelines and strategies for learning to accept other people's way of thinking and acting.

The ability to be tolerant is a fundamental psychological characteristic in many respects. It favors our propensity to coexist in culturally rich societies, and it is also a gateway to new knowledge.

In this article we will look at a series of tips on how to become more tolerantThe tolerance is a behavioral dynamic that can be learned.

Why is it good to be tolerant?

Getting used to being more tolerant brings us two types of benefits.

On the one hand, assuming that the human being is a social animal, it helps us to have more contacts with people of many types, which supposes to have a human capital of individuals with whom we can carry out mutually beneficial actions..

It is not in vain that loneliness is linked to a greater propensity to have a poor quality of life, while having contact with a wide variety of people is very useful in many aspects.

On the other hand, being tolerant of others also exposes us to more and more exposes us to more and greater intellectual stimulation.. Being in contact with points of view different from our own makes it more difficult to be manipulated by stereotypes and prejudices, and also makes us wiser.

We may not agree with a set of ideas and values that others include in their lives, but knowing them firsthand and not just by hearsay makes our notions about those perspectives different from our own more nuanced and honest.

How to Be More Tolerant of Others: 6 Tips

In view of the above, let us now learn about several habits and strategies that help us to be more tolerant.

1. Being aware of one's own biases

First of all, it is very important to be aware that when we come across contradictory ideas, we tend to use many intellectual traps to assume from the start that they are just wrong beliefs. to assume from the outset that these are just mistaken and irrational beliefs. irrational beliefs.

Of course, sometimes we will be right and the ideas of others will be full of logical contradictions and explanatory gaps, but even if they are very valid and even better than ours, the fact that they are seen as incompatible with our beliefs will cause us to reject them.

Fortunately, the simple fact of being aware of this semi-unconscious predisposition opens the door for us to stop and take a closer look at our own beliefs. opens the door for us to stop and consider whether or not these ideas are really legitimate.. However, this is only a first step, and in itself does not make us more tolerant, although it is necessary to undertake the strategies we will see below.

2. Play devil's advocate

This is one of the most useful tips on how to be more tolerant, as it consists of making a conscious effort to defend the ideas with which we disagree and attack our own. It is a a kind of mental simulation to see how the other person's beliefs conform to reality or what is right, compared to our own.

Doing this requires a certain amount of time and effort; it is not enough to dedicate a few seconds to this task. Other people's points of view are often more complex than we can imagine in a matter of fractions of a minute.So we must create a mental representation that is faithful to what those who do not think as we do are really thinking.

3. Look for valid representatives of a collective

When we try to be more tolerant, we usually do so by focusing on our attitudes towards collectives. For example, we want to be more tolerant of certain individuals as representatives of a religion or a way of thinking shared by many people. Therefore, it is important to ensure that in forming a rich and nuanced opinion about these collectives, we make sure that we look at people who truly represent them.

While each individual is unique, some people are more representative of a group than others.For example, someone who has been in prison for engaging in terrorist activities linked to ultraconservative nationalism is unlikely to be a good representative of everyone in his or her country.

4. Dialoguing and focusing on arguments

Dialogue and the use of arguments and ways of thinking based on rationality is a way to connect with others based on common ideas. Therefore, it is important that dialogue, which is necessary to be more tolerant, emphasizes not primarily feelings, but the reasoning behind different ways of thinking. reasoning behind the different ways of feeling and behaving of each other. of one or the other.

In this way, by explaining as rationally as possible why we think what we think and do what we do, we will move further away from intolerance and will be more likely to understand those who do not think as we do.

5. Be willing to change your mind

Becoming more tolerant requires certain sacrifices, and this is the main one. Not only must we be willing to internalize and accept others' ways of living and reasoning; we must also be willing to that others prove to us that they are right and we are wrong.. To assume this is an exercise of humility that some people find difficult to do, but it is essential to open up to others and not fall into fanaticism.

Bibliographical references:

• Festinger, L. (1962). Cognitive dissonance. Scientific American. 207 (4): 93-107.
• Valls, R. (1994): Sobre fundamentalismos. Claves de razón práctica. 42, pp 40-48.