The public shows resistance to facing realistic costs and trade-offs on the issue of health care. When the public has given a lot of thought to an issue and proposals for addressing it, they begin to hold firmly to their opinions even when presented with unpleasant consequences. One example currently being played out around the country concerns raising standards in public schools. People are now more familiar with the debate, and their support for raising standards holds, even as they acknowledge that raising standards could result in higher drop-out rates, and even when they consider the prospect of failing youngsters who have tried hard, but have not learned what is expected. The two stages of resolution are linked, but different.
People are quicker to accept change in their minds than in their hearts.
In Stage 6 people accept an idea, but they usually do not act on it until they reach Stage 7. It can take decades for some issues to arrive at the last stage of public opinion, and the issue of women in the work place is one such example. Over time the public has come to accept the idea of women working outside the home and strongly endorses ideas such as equal pay for equal work and non-discriminatory hiring. The only kernel of the issue that remains even somewhat controversial is whether mothers of young children should work outside the home. Even here, although many Americans express concern about how children fare in today's working families, very few blame women for working for selfish reasons, and most believe that it is entirely possible to be a good mother while in the labor force.