Cause of misjudgment № 3
Disliking/Hating Tendency
Once we dislike someone, we ignore their virtues, dislike everything associated with them, and distort the facts to keep our hatred fed.
This is the mirror image of the Liking/Loving Tendency, and just as automatic. Once we dislike a person, a group, or an institution, we discount their genuine virtues, extend the dislike to everything connected with them, and twist incoming facts to justify the antipathy. Strong enough, it makes accurate thinking nearly impossible, because the mind will distort reality itself rather than give the hated party any credit.
You can watch it operate in any bitter feud — a divorce, a political rivalry, a family dispute over an estate. Each side recounts a history in which the other person has been wrong, selfish, and malicious at every turn, with no redeeming moments. Reality is never that one-sided. The cleaner the villain in the story, the more the storyteller’s judgment has been bent by the tendency.
Munger’s point is not that you should never dislike anyone — some people and ideas deserve it. The risk is that the dislike contaminates your perception of the facts and of everything in the disliked party’s orbit, leading you to reject good ideas because of who holds them. The discipline is to force yourself to state the other side’s case fairly, and to take a good argument seriously even when it comes from someone you cannot stand.
