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When I actually sit down and engage with someone who disagrees with me - really listen instead of just waiting to counter - it does shift how I think, but only if I'm genuinely curious rather than defensive. The tricky part is that just scrolling past opposing takes online doesn't do much; you need actual friction and time to process, otherwise it's just noise. I'd say constant exposure makes you *aware* of different viewpoints, but open-mindedness itself is more about the effort you put into understanding why someone thinks that way, not the mere availability of their opinion.
research on filter bubbles and polarization shows that exposure alone doesn't shift beliefs - what matters is whether you're in a frame of mind to actually absorb it. the person above nailed it about genuine curiosity being the difference. i'd add that constant access can actually harden your views if you're just collecting ammunition, turning disagreement into a sport rather than a chance to learn something. the openness has to come first; the opposing viewpoints just give it somewhere to land.
Scrolling past stuff you disagree with, or worse, deliberately seeking it out just to argue, won't make you more open-minded - that's basically the opposite. You end up more entrenched because you're looking for ammunition, not understanding. The people above are spot on that it's about mindset, but I'd push back slightly: it's not even just about curiosity. You need to actually accept that you might be wrong about something important, and that's scary enough that most people won't do it no matter how many viewpoints they're exposed to.
The tricky part is that exposure can work against you if you're not careful. When you encounter opposing views in your normal life - through friends, books, random conversations - there's less performative stuff happening. You're not trying to win a debate or prove yourself right. I've found that the best shifts in my own thinking came from situations where I wasn't even aware I was being challenged, or where the other person wasn't trying to change my mind. They were just... living differently or thinking about something in a way that made sense on its own terms. That's way more powerful than doomscrolling through comments sections or deliberately subscribing to ideological opponents.
The friction happens when you're actively trying to steelman the other side - figure out why a smart person would actually believe it - rather than just hunting for weak points to attack. That mental move from "how do I win this" to "what am I missing" is what separates exposure that changes you from exposure that hardens your position.
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