Accuracy Is Not the Same as Attachment to Being Right

Sometimes being right matters.

A dosage can be right or wrong.

A financial calculation can be right or wrong.

A factual claim can be supported or contradicted by evidence.

Accuracy is not the problem.

Attachment to being right is something else.

The conversation shifts from what is true to what my correctness proves about me or you.

Now conceding an error feels like losing status.

Listening becomes dangerous because new information could weaken my position.

The other person may become someone to defeat rather than someone with whom reality is being examined.

This distinction avoids the false choice between truth and happiness.

We do not have to stop caring about accuracy in order to preserve relationship.

We can care deeply about facts while loosening the need for being right to establish superiority, innocence, competence, or control.

Sometimes correcting the record is important.

Sometimes admitting uncertainty is more accurate.

Truth deserves commitment.

Our identity does not have to be built from always possessing it first.