Why do people say they are open-minded?

It’s just a saying like “I’m outgoing”. It’s up to you to decide who really is open minded, and it also depends on what you want them to be open minded about. If you’re trying to get people to see the other side to ruthlessly murdering kittens, they’re not going to be open minded.

They mean that are willing to listen to the other side of an argument, not that they will necessarily change their minds.

This means they are willing to listen and maybe accept coming changes.

It means aside from what they might choose or believe for themselves, they are tolerant or in support of somethings maybe different when it comes to other people’s lives.

Is open-minded suppose to mean “always welcome change” instead of debating about a topic from a logical standpoint?

Also, why would a person conciously label themselves with a negative attribute? I think everyone likes to believe they are open-minded, even the most ignorant ones.

Because they’re open minded to ideas that fit with theirs ;)

Theres a difference between being open minded and having no mind of your own. No one should ever be a mindless drone.
It just means that they will listen to what they will determine to be a reasonable point of view and are willing to re-think the point if a good enough arguement is given.
If they feel that your arguement isn’t strong enough than they probably won’t change their mind. Of course this all depends on their own personal interpetation of reasonable.

Having you thoughts already figured it out doesn’t mean you are close minded. TO be stubborn is not the same as being narrow minded and not listening to what others have to say.

Relevant.

They’re open minded because their head wasn’t screwed on right and half of it fell off.

It means that their mindset conforms to typically Leftist conventions.

@Nullo Did you just say that leftists usually claim to be open minded?

Because “prejudiced” is such an ugly word. It’s much more ego-flattering for them to describe themselves as open minded, regardless of whether that’s really true or not :)

I can’t speak for anyone else but myself, really. I say that cuz I want attention and respect lol. Sad but true. Least I got the guts to admit that shit lol. A least on the Internet. XD

Fucks if I know why anyone else does it.

I usually say it when I want to insinuate somebody’s prejudiced or biased, or I want to seem smarter though to do that, I figure “receptive” or anything else this thesaurus says would fare better. And in a few rare occasions, to convince somebody to tell me deep, personal secrets when they’re afraid of being judged.