Have you ever given someone advice, only for them to ignore it and carry on in the same way? Sometimes people may even come to you and ask for your help, only to snub it. If you’ve experienced this, you’re not alone. It can be highly frustrating, but there may be some scientific reasons behind it.
Even when there is a lot of evidence suggesting a behaviour is wrong, some people are still set in their ways. This could be down to defence mechanisms, and people not wanting to admit when they’re wrong. It could also have something to do with a lack of time perspective.
Even with Evidence we Stay Set in Our Ways
There are certain behaviours in this world that people continue to do, even when the advice strongly encourages them to change their ways. A prime example of this is the way internet users continue to use weak passwords despite all the warnings of cybercrime.
According to detailed research into the most common passwords around the world, each country has a word or set of numbers that comes up more than anything else. For instance, in the UK, the most popular password is “Ashley”. In the USA, it’s “iloveyou”.
Despite there being masses of data out there and sites advising people to change their passwords to something more secure, many people don’t do it. 51 percent of internet users have the same password across multiple accounts, and 53 percent of people rely on their memories for dealing with all their passwords.
Defence Mechanisms
One of the main reasons why some people fail to heed good advice time and again is because they want to protect themselves. They don’t want to admit that there might be something wrong with the way they are doing things. One of the most important defence mechanisms we have is denial, and it enables us to feel content with the way we are handling things.
According to psychological research, denial helps people ignore the reality of a situation so that they don’t experience anxiety around it. If we relate this to passwords, denial obviously helps some people overlook the fact that their accounts could be hacked at any moment. Therefore, they don’t experience any unease about it.
Lack of Time Perspective
Some people may be aware of a problem and accept the good advice, except they never get around to implementing it. This could be because they don’t have a good perception of time and always put things off until it’s too late.
Studies show that poor time management or a lack of time perspective can be down to not having clearly defined goals in life. When trying to figure out what to do and move forward from a problem, some people experience something called analysis paralysis. This prevents them from doing the thing that they know they need to do.
So, now you know why some people ignore your advice, is it a good idea to stop giving it? That is up to you. Just don’t get annoyed when you try to help someone and they carry on in the same way regardless.
