the.com/change of heart
When conviction meets new evidence and loses gracefully.
means A reversal of one's decision, opinion, or feelings about something, usually after reconsideration.
from A straightforward English phrase, not borrowed from elsewhere — it leans on the old idea of the heart as the seat of will and feeling, so a change there means a change in what you actually intend or believe. The phrase has been used in this sense since at least the 1700s, drawing on centuries of 'heart' language in English (heartfelt, hardhearted, heartsick) where the organ stands in for conviction itself.
- not weakness
- usually requires more courage than stubbornness
- biology angle
- emotional reversal often starts before conscious reasoning catches up
- politics tell
- called flip-flopping only when the other side does it
- origin
- heart once believed to be the seat of decision-making