As an astro-physicist, you must inderstand the different between Newtonian mechanics and Special/General relatvity. Both 'true' for a certain degree of accuracy, and useful (over a certain domain space: like spec rel is only useful in inertial reference frames, and general rel is only useful outside of, say, singularities, or more generally when the scales relevant to quantum mechanics aren't signifigant).
So over time we have developed new (scientific) perspectives. But personally we have our own perspectives, like (and i stereotype) the working class person who believes 'the system' has never done anything but shit on them. Or the upper class person, who believes the working class scroungers are a waste of oxygen.
These sorts of social perspectives will colour our reactions to what politicians say. But how you interact with the world depends on your perspective. You can't imagine going faster than the speed of light if you only see the universe through Spec rel, (whereas general rel allow the warping of space to expand space behind you and contract it in front... Al la warp drive) So we are limited by our perspectives.
Yes, they naturally change over time. But can you choose to change them?
Usually i would say people use their perspectives to reinforce beliefs about themselves, to make them feel safe and good. Like they are moral. So my working class stereotype might not be doing very well due to economic circumstances and would blame society, because blaming yourself means you are a flawed human being; or the upper class stereotype might be doing well economically and think 'sure i'm great, so it is natural that wealth comes my way' - again reinforcing a positive view of oneself.
Now as others have pointed out, trauma can lead to a kind of break, a traumatic shift in perspectives. It challenges your view of self, your identity, and can force you to re-evaluate your perspective (perhaps to adopt one which is more useful - you could compare this to scientific revolutions).
I think it would be an interesting idea to explore what would happen to a person who flipped the table, as it were. Gave up and started again (for whatever reason). Like throwing out all scientific knowledge, and testing everything from scratch - except personal belief systems don't tend to have the self-correcting features of science, so you might expect to become a very different person.
Actually in a way, having children does this. Each generation is given the opportunity to create their own set of perspectives...