Why can a person's life principles change? A psychologist explains

Jakarta (ANTARA) - A person’s moral views can change throughout their life not solely due to self-interest or inconsistency, but because of the emergence of new reasons and considerations deemed relevant, according to psychologist Auderm Dahl from Cornell University.

Reporting from Psychology Today on Tuesday (23/6) in his book “Between Fixed and Fickle: Why Our Moral Views Keep Changing”, Dahl explains that many people tend to view their own moral beliefs as something fixed and indisputable.

However, when encountering others with different views, they often assume such differences arise from self-interest, emotion, or flawed reasoning.

Dahl refers to this mindset as “fixed and fickle”—the tendency to see one’s own moral views as correct and permanent, while viewing the views of others as easily changeable or influenced by non-moral factors.

According to him, this explanation is flawed because it is rarely applied to oneself. Most people, Dahl says, do not view the changes in their moral views from childhood to adulthood as the result of errors in thinking or self-interest.

On the contrary, they tend to view such changes as progress towards a better understanding.

Dahl argues that changes in moral views usually occur because an individual discovers new reasons that are considered sensible. He identifies three main factors driving these changes.

First, an individual may develop new moral concerns. For example, the emergence of a belief that all humans, including future generations, possess equal rights.

Second, an individual may build new connections between existing moral values and issues that were previously ignored. For instance, someone might realise that current fossil fuel usage potentially harms future generations due to climate change.

Third, an individual may change how they balance various competing moral interests. According to Dahl, a person might decide that small sacrifices today, such as reducing air travel or meat consumption, are worth making to protect the environment for future generations.

He emphasises that understanding the reasons behind changes in moral views is different from judging whether those changes are good or bad.

“Science can help explain why moral views change, but it cannot determine how moral views should change,” said Dahl.

According to him, curiosity regarding the reasons behind a person’s changing views can help foster better understanding, rather than immediately dismissing disagreements as a form of inconsistency or self-interest.