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What does it mean to be "open minded"?

Grayscale

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often used, rarely defined... what meaning does it have to you?
 

Kaizer

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being pluralistic or subscribing to pluralism ?
 

kyuuei

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Hm. An interesting question, I think this is a word that revolves around situation for me.

Open-minded could mean to take into consideration my ideas or the group's ideas instead of deciding that whatever you have to say is absolute when it comes to project or work based things...

Open-minded could also mean being understanding or non-judgmental if it's something more personal, or if I'm confiding in someone.

I use it occasionally to indicate that someone's being too prideful and not humbling themselves enough in a situation requiring it. It's a nice way of saying "Shut the hell up and stop making an ass of yourself."

I think in the end though it's a lot to do, for me, with the request to temporarily ignore one's personal bias and beliefs in order to better understand and help someone or a situation.
 

zago

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Open minded people, as I see it, acknowledge when they don't know whether or not they like something. Close-minded people say they hate things that they have never really been exposed to, i.e. unfamiliar movies and music. An open minded person may not want to watch or listen to such things, but at least will admit that they might be good.
 

Kollin

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I think of openmindedness as being able to entertain new ideas and ways of thinking and doing things. I've met quite a few people who like things done the way they always have and aren't interested in changing anything. you could call it "tradition". Then there are some who are like screw "tradition" and do it however they see fit.

those that are less traditional are a lot of times seen as more "openminded".
 

nightning

ish red no longer *sad*
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As according to 5 factor personality...

Openness refers to being responsive to variety of experiences. Appreciation for different sort of art, music, activity... also lumped with being imaginative. Although the commonly used lay definition of being open-minded has nothing to do with the imagination.

My working definition would be open to exploration. Which means when we're approaching a subject, we shouldn't have any predefined notion... or even direction as to where or what the answer might be. Open-mindedness in the freest sense would have no judgment... and thus one also cannot make any decisions. So open-mindedness, up to a point, is good to have. Taken too far, it paradoxically stalls progress.
 

nozflubber

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an open-minded person is someone who's close-minded about being close-minded.
 

Eileen

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Moved from relationships to other psychology topics.
 

Moiety

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Open mindedness is : "not looking down on others for being or thinking different" except when they step on your values.
 

briochick

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I think open mindedness is a being willing to consider the other persons point of view and to try to set asside emotional judgements for a time before deciding what you think or feel or to check something out before making a value judgement on it.

But, I know that that's not the definition of a lot of people.
 

Pancreas

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Obviously, everyone will have slightly different interpretations. Personally, whether or not someone is open-minded relies heavily on the circumstances, but generally I believe it’s just general receptivity. You may not have to actually like something, but being willing to accept whatever it is as valid.
 

Kasper

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Being willing to consider something new or different.

Being receptive to new data.

I also like to think of "openness to experience" when I think of open mindedness.

That works for me ^
 

Rainman

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Being open to think about and rationally consider suggestions or opinions other than your own.
 

me_plus_one

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The ability to understand that there can be view and opinions other than your own, that are perfectly valid.
Embracing new ideas and experiences.
 

sarah

soft and silky
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often used, rarely defined... what meaning does it have to you?


Not jumping to negative conclusions and acting on that before you know the facts. Not making instant and final assessments without thinking through why you came to that conclusion.

Also, it's about taking stock of the needs of the current situation and acting on that rather than stubbornly clinging to what "should" ideally work or what "used to" work.
 

mlittrell

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i think it has two definitions. a pure definition of open mindedness and the definition as defined by society which would be the couple that were mentioned above. pure open mindedness to me would be listening to everything and taking it into full account with absolutely no bias whatsoever. i would find this to be quite hard (though not impossible) as most people have their own opinions. in terms of society it would be receptive to new ideas, as stated above.
 

The Ü™

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Open-minded is following your own curiosities wherever they might lead.

Being receptive to other's views or ideas is called conforming which frequently leads to closed-mindedness.
 
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