Humans are a species of repetition and adjustment. When you cannonball into a pool, the water might feel freezing at first, but the longer you stay in the water, the warmer it feels. The more you do something, or the more times something happens, the more you get used to it… usually! But it seems like everyone, no matter how much they deny it, has an alarm that gets sounded when someone tells them that they're wrong. Now I’m not saying that every time that I am told that I may not be correct, I get furious. However, for the number of times each one of us is told that we are wrong throughout our lives, I’m surprised that our emotions still get influenced.

Think about it, every time you lose a point on an assignment you are basically told that you’re wrong. Every time you quickly type in your password and your laptop asks you if you forgot it, you’re wrong again. Being wrong has a negative connotation, and rightfully so. It lets you know that you thought you did something correct, but you didn’t. It takes a jab at the ego, although I know that ideally everyone is selfless and likes to think that they don’t have an ego. Not having the answer sometimes even surpasses the ego and crushes one’s confidence.

The most confusing part of this, for me, is that at times being wrong can have high stakes consequences if you are in a scenario such as an important meeting, but I get the most worked up when a car honks at me or when a family member tells me that I'm wrong. We all know the feeling, driving at the speed limit and having the guy behind you honk, looking at you like you’re doing something wrong as he speeds ahead. You respond with the, “who do you think you are?! Think you’re so special that driving rules don’t apply to you?!” (Though, you grin as you keep driving and realize that he had to stop at the same light as you.)

Or you know the cringe that follows a normal conversation with a family or close friend when they tell you that what you've said is wrong. In your head you may have accepted that you’re wrong, and it was just a normal conversation. The smart and mature thing to say is that you’ve accepted that you were wrong, but instead you continue to argue, stressing that you “don’t care even if you are wrong!” Suddenly a conversation that should have lasted only a minute produces a five minute long rant. This isn't to say that I'm not guilty of the same strategy. In fact the more I think about it, the more prevalent this phenomena is then I first thought!

According to http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/2..., “one study showed that 'social pain' [affecting self-esteem] activated the same circuits of the brain as physical pain. Consequently any attack on our self-image is interpreted by the brain as physical pain.” This brings up the question of when do you point out if someone else is incorrect? You don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings, but at the same time depending on who you’re talking to, you may feel that it is better for you to correct them than someone else! I guess I have not arrived on a concrete answer from this writing and reflecting process except that more likely than not, I’m going to be wrong in my day-to-day-life. I’ve clearly pondered this subject more than others, so I should step forward and try to make sure that I value learning the correct answer as a result of being wrong, rather than seeing all of the negative aspects associated with it.