Psychology RootsBeliefs
A belief is a proposition that is regarded as true. A belief may be factually correct (“The world is round”) or incorrect (“The Earth is the center of the universe”). Two main distinctions are made regarding beliefs: dispositional versus occurrent beliefs and implicit versus explicit ones. Dispositional beliefs refer to beliefs about an enduring property that remains unchanged across time and situations (e.g., “Birds of a feather flock together”), whereas occurrent beliefs refer to beliefs about a temporary state of being (e.g., “I believe she was upset”). Explicit beliefs refer to those for which the mind has a coherent mental representation, whereas implicit beliefs are those that are not coherently represented in the mind and may be difficult to communicate.
